McConnell Makes Year-End Attempt to Entrench GOP’s Court Takeover

Courts News 12.16.19

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

WASHINGTON – Lena Zwarensteyn, Fair Courts campaign director at The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, issued the following statement after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell filed cloture on 13 judicial nominees this week in an attempt to bring Trump’s total lifetime confirmations to 187:

“In a last-ditch effort, Majority Leader McConnell is rushing to confirm as many lifetime nominees as he can to entrench his terrifying agenda. With his caucus’ full participation, he will stop at nothing to achieve through the courts what his party cannot accomplish legislatively: erasing the progress the nation has made to protect civil rights. With shameful glee, McConnell has transformed twenty percent of the federal judiciary already, and is intentionally installing individuals who have demonstrated hostility to the communities whose civil and human rights are most at risk under this administration.

“This single-minded focus ensures that unqualified judges will sit on our federal courts for decades to come.

“Today, McConnell filed cloture on 13 nominees, three of whom would not even state that the landmark civil rights decision Brown v. Board of Education was correctly decided. Senators must see McConnell’s rush for what it is and reject his agenda to dismantle our civil rights through the courts.”

Read The Leadership Conference’s letter and updated list of nominees who we are calling on senators to oppose — all of whom refused to state unequivocally that Brown was correctly decided.

The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights is a coalition charged by its diverse membership of more than 220 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.