Congress Must Improve Judiciary, Not Enable Trump Takeover

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Patrick McNeil, [email protected]

WASHINGTON — Lena Zwarensteyn, senior director of the fair courts program and an advisor at The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, issued the following statement after the House passed H.R. 1526, the No Rogue Rulings Act (NORRA):

“Our federal courts must work for everyone, not just the wealthy and powerful. Our courts are at the forefront of defending the very tenets of our democracy, and they are doing their job when they stop illegal actions and when they thwart unconstitutional and unlawful attempts to take away our rights. Congressional efforts that seek to undermine the independence and fairness of the judiciary are blatant attempts to appease a president who thinks he’s king, and they seek to usher in autocracy in ways that should alarm everyone. The president and his enablers know what they’re doing is unlawful, so they’re trying to change the rules and the law. Let’s be clear: Rigging the judiciary in favor of Trump — all to empower the president even more and to continue the harm being inflicted on our communities — is unacceptable.

“Attacks on federal judges and emerging legislative proposals like the one passed in the House today threaten to impair the judiciary, enable the Trump administration to continue its cruel and unlawful takeover of our government, roll back our hard-fought civil rights, and remove critical checks on the executive. We need a powerful response in defense of our democracy, not lawmakers quickly changing the rules to benefit a lawless president who prizes loyalty and power over the rights of all of us. We urge the Senate to reject similar measures. Instead, lawmakers should focus on advancing proposals that will improve the judiciary for all people so that one day our courts will truly deliver equal justice for all.”

The Leadership Conference and more than 50 organizations wrote to members of Congress in strong opposition to NORRA. The Leadership Conference also joined more than 70 national organizations in opposition to several congressional proposals that would enable Trump’s takeover of the judiciary.

The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights is a coalition charged by its diverse membership of more than 240 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.

###