The Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing tomorrow on Carolyn Kuhl, a Bush nominee to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, whose record is anti-women’s rights. Kuhl, who has a long record of opposing reproductive rights, is the latest example of Bush’s effort to stack the nation’s courts with far-right ideologues.
As a member of the Reagan administration’s Department of Justice, Kuhl coauthored an amicus brief urging full-scale rejection of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 US Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion rights in the US. The brief stated: “the textual, doctrinal and historical basis for Roe v. Wade is so far flawed… that this [Supreme] Court should reconsider that decision and on reconsideration abandon it.” Kuhl’s opposition to reproductive rights extends even to contraception. In addition, Kuhl has argued for a narrower definition of sexual harassment.
The Senate has also scheduled a vote on the nomination of Tim Tymkovich, a lawyer from Denver who has been a strong opponent of women’s rights, abortion rights and gay rights, to the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals. Tymkovich has argued that the state of Colorado should not have to provide Medicaid funds to Colorado women seeking abortions for pregnancies resulting from rape or incest. In addition, as the former Solicitor General of Colorado, Tymkovich defended the state’s anti-gay Amendment 2, which later was invalidated by the US Supreme Court. Tymkovich argued that Amendment 2 only prohibited “special rights” for gay and lesbian individuals and cited statistics that showed that gay and lesbian individuals “have higher incomes than heterosexual individuals and claimed, therefore, that there was no need for anti-discrimination protection,” according to the AAUW.
The Feminist Majority joins a wide variety of women’s rights, civil rights, consumer rights, environmental, labor, gay rights, and other progressive groups in opposing the confirmations of Kuhl and Tymkovich.
TAKE ACTION Urge the Senate Judiciary Committee to Oppose Carolyn Kuhl
