Senate Rubber Stamps Extremist Duncan as Federal Judge

WASHINGTON – Vanita Gupta, president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, issued the following statement after the Senate today voted to confirm Stuart Kyle Duncan to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit:

“President Trump continues to put forward ideological judicial nominees with deeply disturbing records, and only the Senate can serve as a check.  Today, the Senate was derelict in its duties. Duncan’s record clearly shows he is on the far-right fringe, and he has advanced an ideological agenda to diminish voting rights, LGBTQ equality, immigrants’ rights, and women’s reproductive freedom. The Senate must stop rubber stamping Trump’s judicial nominees with narrow-minded views, and instead demand fair-minded jurists who will approach every case with neutrality and an open mind.”

Earlier today, Senators Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Chris Coons (D-Del.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), and Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), along with The Leadership Conference and other civil rights leaders, held a call on their opposition to Duncan. More information on that call, including audio, is available here.

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.