Alabama Attorney General William Pryor became a federal judge Feb. 20 — but not in the usual way.

President Bush granted the out-spoken Catholic a two-year recess appointment to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals after Democratic senators had prevented Pryor's nomination for a lifetime term from coming to the Senate floor for a vote.

Pryor was also embroiled in controversy last year when he enforced a court order forbidding Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore from displaying the Ten Commandments.

“His beliefs are so well known, so deeply held,” said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., about Pryor, “that it's very hard to believe — very hard to believe — that they're not going to deeply influence the way he comes about saying, ‘I will follow the law.’”

Columnist Charles Krauthhammer wrote that “Pryor is being pilloried because he openly states (1) that Roe v. Wade was a constitutional abomination and (2) that abortion itself is a moral abomination.”

Register correspondent Joseph D'Agostino interviewed Pryor on March 2.

Are you a cradle Catholic or a convert?

I'm a cradle Catholic but the son of converts. My father was a Southern Baptist who went to a Catholic school and became Catholic in eighth grade. I grew up in Mobile, Ala.

There are lot of Catholics in Mobile, aren't there? Were you always dedicated to the faith or did you fall away and then come back?

Yes, there are. I would not say I fell away. I would say I was always dedicated but I was challenged more when I left Mobile and attended college in Monroe, La., where my mother was raised and both my parents went to college, and where Catholics are a distinct minority. It would clearly be considered a Bible Belt community. Most of my friends were evangelicals or fundamentalists.

Why did you choose to go there for college?

I was a music major originally when I went to college, as my father before me, and they had a very good school of music. And as a son of Catholic schoolteachers, the scholarships I received were very helpful, as I had to pay my own way. There was not a lot of money in our home.

I was always torn about my major. I was a good musician in high school. I was a timpanist on the kettledrums, a percussionist. … Then I became involved in Ronald Reagan's presidential campaign. It was 1980. I became a member of the College Republicans, and at the end of my freshman year, although I had done very well in music, I decided to switch majors. My mother actually made the sugges-tion that summer and I thought she was right.

You've really been a politician. The attorney general office in Alabama is an elective office. When did you first run for it?

I was first appointed to it. I was in private practice in Birmingham. … When Jeff Sessions was elected attorney general, I was a month from making partner in my firm, but he asked me to be his deputy in charge of civil litigation. So I came to the office and worked for him for two years. And then, when he was elected to the U.S. Senate, I was appointed by the governor to finish his term. Then I was elected in 1998 and reelected in 2002, and at that point was term-limited.

Why did you make the switch from politics to the bench?

I believe that one of the highest callings, or the highest calling, really, for any American lawyer would be to serve your country as a defender of the Constitution on the bench of the federal judiciary.

There seems to be a lot of dispute over how to defend the Constitution these days. How is the Constitution defended by a judge?

By upholding and applying the law, faithfully, impartially, without fear or favor, and diligently.

Are you what's called a strict constructionist — a judge who refuses to inject any of his own philosophy and just follows the text of the Constitution?

I would agree with Justice [Antonin] Scalia that that's not a very good way to describe a good judge. I believe judges should follow the text, structure and history of the law in interpreting the law.

Why do so many people seem to interpret the Constitution and the law in a very different way?

There are some people who would prefer to interpret the Constitution to favor political outcomes they support, but the law is not supposed to be a political instrument. If we're a country governed by the rule of law, if that protects our freedom as I believe it does, then judges have to be bound by the law and not place themselves above the law.

And you believe that's what Judge Roy Moore did, place himself above the law?

I believe that when somebody has had an opportunity in a trial court and had an opportunity for appeal and then they refuse to obey a court order — and in fact defy a court order — yes, they have placed themselves above the law.

Now that you're in a circuit court, what will you do if you have to enforce a law that's against your conscience? What if it's about abortion?

As attorney general, I had a record of applying the law in the area of abortion, even though I disagreed with it. The law did not give me the authority as attorney general to prosecute persons involved in abortion, and because the law did not give me that authority, I had to respect the law, whether I agreed with it or not.

That's different from someone who would be called upon, say, in Nazi Germany or in Communist China to enforce the law in a way where they were participating in an evil and immoral act. That I could not do as a Christian, but that's not what is involved, and that was not involved in my role as attorney general.

What do you say to those who allege you are a dangerous extremist, outside the mainstream, that you shouldn't be on the bench?

The only thing I can say to anyone who wants to evaluate my record is look at my record, particularly as attorney general of Alabama, based on how I perform the duties of my office.

And I think that record shows I have been committed to the rule of law, that I have zealously defended the law and applied the law even when I disagreed with the law.

So what happened with Moore was in keeping with the rest of your record?

Absolutely.

Did you agree with Moore that it was okay to display the Ten Commandments in that courthouse?

As attorney general, I believed that I had a duty to defend his display. He was the chief judicial officer of Alabama. I had long taken the position as attorney general that depictions of the Ten Commandments can be appropriate in courtrooms as they are appropriately displayed in the Supreme Court of the United States, but he had an obligation to follow the final orders of the federal judiciary whether he agreed with them or not. …

I take the position that a public official cannot engage in civil disobedience. Civil disobedience is the province of the private citizen.

What Supreme Court justice would you hold up as a model? Would it be Scalia?

I admire Justice Scalia. I also admire Justice Byron White and other justices as well. … I had a conservative judicial philosophy before I went to law school.

Did you just grow up that way?

No. I think my thinking about the role of a judge was influenced greatly by the decision of the Supreme Court in Roe v. Wade. It was an unpopular decision at my home, particularly with my parents.

“The worst abomination in the history of constitutional law.”

Yes, I've said that and I agree with that.

St. Thomas More is often pointed to as a model for Catholics and all men of conscience.

He's our patron saint. He's the patron saint of both lawyers and politicians. So he was my patron saint in two capacities, in my last job and still is a patron saint for me.

So do you have a devotion to him?

I do. I find there to be growing devotion to St. Thomas More and growing interest in him. In fact, here within the last year in Montgomery, a small group of Catholic lawyers has organized a St. Thomas More Society. The same thing has happened in my hometown of Mobile.

Joseph D'Agostino writes from Washington.