With Phipps’ Nomination, Every Trump Third Circuit Nominee to Date is White, Male, and Ideologically Extreme

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Rafael Medina, [email protected], 202.869.0390

WASHINGTON – Kristine Lucius, executive vice president for policy and government affairs at The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, issued the following statement on the Senate’s vote to advance the nomination of Peter Phipps to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit:

“Donald Trump and Senate Republicans are stacking the courts with white, conservative, male ideologues, and Peter Phipps is the latest example. He is the fourth white man to be nominated to the Third Circuit during this administration, and the third to this court to advance despite objections from at least one of the nominees’ home-state senators – a norm that has long been used as a mechanism to help vet fair nominations. It is beyond hypocritical that Republicans claimed the very same guideline that they have now thrown out the window as the basis of their refusal to advance Rebecca Haywood – Obama’s nominee for the Third Circuit – who would have been the first African-American woman on this very court. The Senate must stop rubberstamping this takeover of the courts and vote against the confirmation of Phipps.”

Trump has nominated the least diverse group of nominees in decades. Of his 42 confirmed circuit court nominees, there is not a single African-American or Latinx judge – but the number of nominees who fit the profile of extreme ideologues who are unfit to serve impartially, and who are overwhelmingly white and male, amount to an overwhelming majority. This practice is both appalling and unacceptable.

Read The Leadership Conference’s letter in opposition to the confirmation of Peter Phipps.

The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights is 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 member organizations, visit www.civilrights.org.