Bush Reveals His Real Judicial Agenda: Pack Federal Bench With Controversial Judges Intent on Rolling Back Rights

Media 02.14,05

WASHINGTON – In re-nominating a slate of controversial judges who the Senate has already rejected, today President Bush revealed his real judicial agenda of packing the federal courts with judges who are outside of the mainstream, upsetting the long, time honored precedent of Senate consultation. In response, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR), the nation’s oldest, largest, and most diverse civil and human rights coalition, issued the following statement:

“These judges were unfit for the federal bench when President Bush first nominated them and they are still unfit today,” said LCCR Executive Director Wade Henderson. “Despite what the President would like us to believe, these nominees are not moderate, fair-minded judges who have the letter of the law and our best interests at heart. They are part of a bigger Bush agenda: a move to pack our courts with out-of-the-mainstream judges who are driven by ideology – not the law. LCCR opposed them when they were first nominated and we oppose them now.”

“By re-submitting these failed nominees the President is forcing confrontation. The Senate struck down these nominees once and LCCR hopes that they will have the courage to do it again,” said LCCR Deputy Director Nancy Zirkin. “The American people deserve moderate federal judges who will fairly interpret the law based on judicial precedent – not their own ideological agendas. These judges threaten to roll back critical rights and protections Americans have worked hard for and count on: our civil rights and liberties, safety in our workplaces, clean air and safe water, privacy in our homes, and equality for all Americans.”

A quick look at the records of President Bush’s re-nominated judges proves that they are out of touch with the mainstream:



  • Texas Supreme Court Justice Priscilla Owen, whose nomination to the Fifth Circuit was rejected by the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2002, took campaign money from Enron and Halliburton and then ruled in their favor.



  • Alabama Attorney General, William Pryor, whom Bush placed on the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals through a recess appointment, raised money from corporations doing business in the state that he was supposed to be policing. Pryor has called Roe v. Wade “the worst abomination of constitutional law in our history” and has argued that the Supreme Court should cut back on the protections of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the Family and Medical Leave Act.



  • California Supreme Court Justice Janice Rogers Brown, nominated to the DC Circuit, has suggested that the social security system is unconstitutional and accused senior citizens of “blithely cannibaliz[ing] their grandchildren.”



  • Attorney Thomas Griffith, nominated to the DC Circuit, has argued against a key component of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (which bars sex discrimination by educational institutions), raising broad concerns about his approach to both that landmark law and to other critical areas of civil rights law.



  • Idaho lawyer William Myers III, nominated to the Ninth Circuit, has compared federal laws protecting the environment to the “tyranny” of King George III over the colonies.



  • Department of Defense General Counsel William Haynes, nominated to the Fourth Circuit, played a central role in the decision to hold American citizens as enemy combatants with virtually no access to civilian courts or to counsel and the decision to hold detainees at Guantánamo Bay without the protections of the Geneva Convention.



  • Federal district court judge Terrence Boyle, nominated to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, has a long history of hostility to civil rights precedents, one-sided support for states’ rights, as well as an unusually high rate of reverse decisions.



  • David McKeague, federal district court judge in Michigan nominated to the Sixth Circuit, has shown hostility to civil rights plaintiffs, has narrowed federal protections for the environment, and ignored the separation of church and state.



  • Richard Griffin, a Michigan state court of appeals judge nominated to the Sixth Circuit, has shown hostility to workers and civil rights, as well as the rights of the accused.



  • Attorney Brett Kavanaugh, nominated to the DC Circuit, has less legal experience than virtually any Republican or Democratic DC Circuit judicial nominee in more than 30 years – but has a long history of partisan politics that includes defending the conduct of former independent counsel Kenneth Starr.



  • Michigan Court of Appeals judge Henry Saad, nominated to the Sixth Circuit, has displayed a willingness to distort the law and manipulate facts.


    Since its founding in 1950, LCCR has provided a powerful unified voice for the various constituencies of the coalition: persons of color, women, children, individuals with disabilities, gays and lesbians, older Americans, labor unions, major religious groups and civil liberties and human rights groups. Today, more than 50 million persons belong to the 180 organizations that form LCCR, and, while the organizations continue to advance their respective goals, inherent to their success is their membership in LCCR, the coalition that unifies and amplifies the voices of those who share a common vision of equal opportunity, justice and mutual respect.