June 8 (Bloomberg) -- Janice Rogers Brown became the second disputed judicial nominee of President George W. Bush to win U.S. Senate confirmation following last month's bipartisan agreement that averted a showdown over the power of Democrats to block court appointments.

The Senate voted 56-43 today to approve Brown's nomination to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Senators planned to vote later on a move to limit debate on another nominee covered by the agreement, William H. Pryor Jr., who was temporarily appointed by Bush to a federal appeals court in Atlanta.

Democrats had blocked a confirmation vote on Brown since she was nominated in 2003. Democrats said that, as a California Supreme Court justice, she displayed hostility to government regulation and the rights of minorities, consumers and workers. Republicans accused Democrats of distorting Brown's record.

``She has inserted her radical views into judicial opinions time and time again,'' said Vermont Democrat Patrick Leahy. ``She is the definition of an activist judge, the sort of person President Bush would say he would not nominate.''

Brown was among three blocked nominees who were assured Senate votes under a deal negotiated by seven Republicans and seven Democrats last month. She was among 10 of Bush's nominees blocked during the last four years. Bush resubmitted her name and six others in February.

Specter's Defense

Brown ``has been pilloried for statements made in speeches,'' Pennsylvania Republican Arlen Specter said. ``If everybody in public life, including United States Senators, were held to everything they have said, none of us would be elected, confirmed, appointed or asked to do anything in the public sphere.''

The bipartisan agreement averted a showdown over a threat by Senate Republican Leader Bill Frist to try to change procedural rules to strip Democrats of the power to shelve judicial nominees by using the filibuster, a parliamentary tactic that allowed unlimited debate.

After the agreement was struck May 23, the Senate confirmed Priscilla Owen, a Texas Supreme Court justice, to a seat on the 5th U.S. Court of Appeals in New Orleans. Seven Republicans who signed the deal agreed not to support Frist's proposed rule change unless the seven Democrats broke a pledge to support filibusters of judges only under ``extraordinary circumstances.''

Truce or Treaty

The agreement ``may prove to be a truce not a treaty,'' said Utah Republican Orrin Hatch. ``We will have to wait and see what the full implications of this deal really are.''

Hatch said Democrats relied on inaccurate legal analyses of Brown's writings provided by ``outside left-wing radical groups'' that have waged ``coordinated, calculated attacks on her character.''

The child of Alabama sharecroppers, Brown was the first black woman to serve as an associate justice on the California Supreme Court.

Democrats cited statements by Brown that New Deal legislation of the 1930s represented ``the triumph of our own socialist revolution.''

They also cited a speech in which she said elderly people ``blithely cannibalize their grandchildren because they have a right to extract enough free stuff as the political system will permit them to extract.''

Race Bias Case

Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada referred to a dissenting opinion in a race-discrimination lawsuit in which Brown said racial slurs made by an employee were protected by the First Amendment, disagreeing with the court's majority that the epithets created a hostile work environment. Reid said the employee had uttered ``the most vile words we have in English.''

Reid noted that 20 of 23 members of a California commission screening state judicial appointees had found her unqualified to sit on the state's highest court. Citing press reports at the time, Reid said the commission found she was ``insensitive to established legal precedent, lacked compassion'' and ``intellectual tolerance for opposing views.''

He dismissed Brown's explanation that many of her statements were intended to stir debate. ``One can readily find the inflammatory rhetoric of her speeches in judicial opinions,'' Reid said.

Nebraska Democrat Ben Nelson, who helped negotiate the bipartisan agreement on judicial nominations, voted in favor of Brown today.

To contact the reporter on this story: James Rowley at jarowley@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: June 8, 2005 17:32 EDT