Despite attempts by Democratic Senators to use a parliamentary rule to block a vote of two far-right judicial nominees, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted 14-3 today to recommend the nomination of John G Roberts, Jr to the DC Circuit and 12-2 to recommend Deborah L Cook to serve on the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. The full Senate will next consider these two anti-women, anti-civil rights nominees.
Cook, currently a justice on the Ohio Supreme Court, has received consistent support from the Ohio Right to Life Committee. In her more than 300 dissents on the Ohio court, she has repeatedly sided with business and corporate interests over individual workers. She also has shown a pattern of opposing enforcement of employment discrimination.
Roberts, currently an attorney in private practice in Washington, DC, signed a brief in 1991 that called for Roe v. Wade to be overturned. He also has argued against civil rights laws being used to protect abortion clinics from violence, affirmative action for minority business contractors and the application of Title IX to the NCAA.
Meanwhile, the full Senate continued debate today on Miguel Estrada, President Bush’s nominee to the DC Circuit Court of Appeals. Feminist and progressive groups throughout the country are pledging continued persistence in opposing Estrada, who adamantly refuses to answer questions about his views.
The Feminist Majority joins a massive coalition of groups urging participation in today’s National Call-in Day, to commit senators to oppose the Bush court-packing scheme and oppose Miguel Estrada as well as Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals nominee Jeffrey Sutton.
TAKE ACTION NATIONAL CALL-IN DAY: Urge Your Senators To Oppose Bush’s Court-Packing Scheme
