Civil and Human Rights Coalition Responds to 4-4 Supreme Court Split on Vital Labor Case

WASHINGTON – Wade Henderson, president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, issued the following statement on today’s split decision in Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association. The Leadership Conference and 70 organizations filed a brief in this case urging the court to uphold the precedent that protects working people, which the court has done today. The Leadership Conference is also playing a leading role in urging the Senate to hold a fair hearing and timely vote on the nomination of Chief Judge Merrick Garland to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court that made this split decision possible:

“We strongly applaud the outcome of today’s decision enabling working people to continue to better their lives with the benefits of a fully functioning union. But we are deeply concerned that the Senate Republicans’ refusal to consider any nominee to fill the vacancy has handcuffed the Supreme Court from making determinative rulings on this and other issues that come before it.

This is the second time since the death of Justice Scalia that the court has deadlocked on an issue. In this instance, its entire opinion was only one sentence long. Yet Senate Republicans still refuse to do their job by granting a fair hearing and having a timely vote on the nomination of Chief Judge Merrick Garland so that the Supreme Court can have its full complement of nine justices.

We urge Senate Republicans like Mitch McConnell and Chuck Grassley to stop playing games with the Supreme Court and to give a fair hearing and timely vote to the Garland nomination. Continuing this obstruction undermines the ability of our government to provide its most basic constitutional functions.”

Wade Henderson is president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, a coalition charged by its diverse membership of more than 200 national organizations to promote and protect the rights of all persons in the United States. The Leadership Conference works toward an America as good as its ideals. For more information on The Leadership Conference and its 200-plus member organizations, visit www.civilrights.org.

###