Kuhl's corner

Opposition to President Bush's appeals-court nominations is causing some unexpected rifts. Mr. Bush nominated Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Carolyn Kuhl to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit on June 22, 2001. Led by California Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, most Senate Democrats and liberal interest groups oppose the nomination.

Judge Kuhl, however, enjoys strong support in the California legal community. More than 100 of her fellow Superior Court judges, many of them Democrats, signed letters of support. Also praising Judge Kuhl is prominent civil-rights attorney and radio talk-show host Leo Terrell. "I am proud to support Judge Kuhl. As a jurist, she was fair and she applied the law."

Mr. Terrell's support collided with the strong opposition of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Mr. Terrell, a long-time NAACP member, provided the organization with volunteer legal assistance for more than a dozen years. He recently resigned his membership and blasted the civil-rights group on his radio show after, as he described it, NAACP officials pressured him to drop his endorsement of Judge Kuhl. "I support her 100 percent," he said, "and I'm not going to change that."