Coons, Gillum, and Civil Rights Groups Oppose Brasher’s Nomination to Eleventh Circuit

Courts News 02.10.20

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contacts:
Rafael Medina, [email protected], 202.869.0390
Madeline Broas, [email protected], 202-224-5042
Joshua Karp, [email protected], 757.472.9903
Deborah Persley, [email protected], 727.686.8251
Amanda Lang, [email protected], 917.886.0336

WASHINGTON – Senator Chris Coons, former Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum, and civil rights advocates hosted a telephonic press call today to urge the Senate to reject Andrew Brasher’s nomination to the Eleventh Circuit. The full Senate is scheduled to vote on his confirmation tomorrow afternoon.

To hear a recording of the call, click here.

Speakers on the call voiced their opposition to Brasher, saying in part:

Senator Chris Coons (D-DE), member, Judiciary Committee: “Voting rights are at the very foundation of civil liberties and civil rights in our society, and we should be doing everything possible to protect and defend them. I’m gravely concerned that Judge Andrew Brasher, if confirmed to the Eleventh Circuit, would only continue the efforts to roll them back. Judge Brasher’s record and lack of candor during his confirmation hearing show that he is unfit for this appellate judgeship in the Eleventh Circuit, and I will be voting no.”

Andrew Gillum, former mayor of Tallahassee, 2018 Democratic nominee for governor of Florida, and fellow at People For the American Way: “I am deeply, deeply disturbed about the nomination of Andrew Brasher to the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals. This nomination is being engineered by the Trump White House and Senate Republicans with a very specific agenda in mind. This nomination is a very deliberate nail in the coffin of voting rights in the Eleventh Circuit, at a very deliberately chosen time in our history.”

Lena Zwarensteyn, Fair Courts campaign director, The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights: “The stakes in Andrew Brasher’s nomination are tremendously high. The Eleventh Circuit hears vital civil rights cases, and this nominee is the antithesis of everything that Alabama embodies as the home of the civil rights movement. He is an anti-civil rights nominee who has made it painfully clear that he does not support the premise of full and free participation by the people in their democracy. By returning immediately to stacking the courts after holding the vote on the articles of impeachment, McConnell is staying the course on shielding the president’s anti-civil rights agenda from checks and balances.

Benard Simelton, president, Alabama State Conference of NAACP: “From Selma to Shelby County, Alabama is ground zero for voting rights. Andrew Brasher has been on the wrong side of every voting rights case he has touched. His nomination is a slap in the face to African Americans, and in particular to our heroes like John Lewis and Dr. Martin Luther King, who risked their lives to get us the vote. As we celebrate the 55th anniversary of Selma, we call upon every senator to honor those who marched by voting against Brasher’s confirmation.”

Lisa Rovinsky, board member and Advocacy Committee chair, National Council of Jewish Women/Atlanta: “Andrew Brasher’s hostility toward women’s reproductive health care, as well as his outright approval of voter suppression, is an affront to our Jewish value of kavod habriot—dignity for all — and to our American values of truth and fairness. He is an abysmal nominee for the Eleventh Circuit — or for any federal court.”

RESOURCES:

  • The Leadership Conference’s letter in opposition to the confirmation of Andrew Brasher.
  • Eleventh Circuit state-based groups’ letter in opposition to the confirmation of Andrew Brasher.
  • Andrew Gillum op-ed on anti-voting rights Eleventh Circuit nominee Andrew Brasher.

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.