In an attempt to force votes on the Administration’s most extreme judicial nominees, the Republican-led Senate will have 30 hours of debate on judicial nominations starting this evening. With the urging of a broad coalition, including the Feminist Majority, Democratic Senators have refused to allow votes on a handful of the most extreme nominees based on the nominees’ records of opposition to civil rights, women’s rights, workers’ rights, and environmental protection.
Among the judicial nominees Democrats have filibustered are individuals who vocally oppose the right to abortion, including one candidate who called Roe v. Wade “the worst abomination of constitutional law in our history.” Another nominee, as a federal judge, tried to reduce the sentence of a convicted cross burner. Another nominee has given numerous speeches arguing for the limitation of government welfare programs and a return to a legal system where property rights had more value than fundamental rights.
Democrats and advocacy groups are planning a rally/vigil at 7 p.m. tonight to protest the court-stacking plan.
Commentators are labeling the debate a Republican stunt, created to appease the radical right wing of the Republican Party. According to a commentator from the Houston Chronicle, the “debate” will be a “holiday pageant” to “raise the spirits of and money from their hard-right faithful.”
The Feminist Majority joins a broad coalition of women’s rights, civil rights, labor, environmental, disability rights, and seniors’ rights groups in opposing Bush’s plan to stack the federal judiciary with right-wing ideologues.
TAKE ACTION Urge Your Senators to Filibuster Far Right Judicial Nominees
DONATE to protect abortion rights!
