How the Film “Confirmation” Resonates on Current Supreme Court Nomination Fight

WASHINGTON – Wade Henderson, president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and the former head lobbyist for the NAACP during the confirmation of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court, released the following statement in advance of the HBO film “Confirmation,” which premieres on Saturday. The film focuses on the nomination of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court and the testimony of Anita Hill that she was sexually harassed while working for Thomas:

“For all the controversy that surrounded the Clarence Thomas nomination, the Senate understood that its job was to hold a hearing, a committee vote, and a full floor vote on his confirmation. As controversial and salacious as the Thomas nomination was, at least the Senate took its constitutional duty seriously. That’s simply not the case today.

Thomas, a Republican nominee, was a lightning rod from the very beginning—especially since he was replacing Justice Thurgood Marshall, a civil rights icon. After Hill’s testimony and persistent opposition from a broad cross-section of Americans, including the NAACP, the Senate Judiciary Committee, on a 7-7 vote, refused to endorse his confirmation.

But Democrats, who held an even larger majority in the Senate than the Republicans have today, still believed that its constitutional duty required it to allow each and every senator to cast a vote on Republican President George H. W. Bush’s nominee to the Supreme Court. That same sense of duty is strikingly absent from today’s Senate Republican leaders and their chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, who are refusing to even hold a hearing on Judge Merrick Garland, President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee.

The Thomas confirmation may have been a circus, but it’s nothing compared to the blunt disrespect being shown to President Obama by today’s Senate.”

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.

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