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Justice Prevails (for Now) During Marathon Judicial Nominee Debate
Show Appreciation or Disapproval for Your Senators' Votes!
Action Needed:
On Friday morning, Nov. 14, after all Senate business was ground to a halt by Republicans scheduling more than 39 hours of non-stop debate, 47 Democratic senators stood up to the Republicans' stunt — in which they tried to force confirmation of three of George W. Bush's most conservative judicial nominees — Priscilla Owen, Carolyn Kuhl and Janice Rogers Brown.
By lumping together the nominations of three women judges, one of whom is African American, Senate Republicans tried to paint opponents of their confirmation as anti-woman and racist. Their plan backfired, as the majority of Democratic senators understood that just because a nominee is a woman she does not necessarily support women's rights and they therefore refused to give in to the theatrics and end their filibuster.
During the debate, Senate Democrats highlighted the three nominees' extremist records, the fact that only six judges have been or are being filibustered, in contrast to the 168 of Bush's judges that have already been confirmed, and the fact that these same Republican senators repeatedly blocked President Clinton's nominees. Democrats also pointed out that while people across the country are losing jobs daily, the Senate was spending precious time debating about jobs for a handful of judges who already had good jobs.
"NOW is grateful to each senator who stood up to the Republicans' opportunistic effort to use gender and race to push through radical right-wing judges, and we encourage them to continue the fight for a fair and independent judiciary," said NOW President Kim Gandy.
"We also appreciate the more than 170,000 messages that NOW activists have sent to their senators as part of our campaign to ensure that women's constitutional rights are protected," said Gandy. "Without the encouragement of feminists around the country, these filibusters would not have been successful."
Use this link to find out how your senators voted and either thank them for voting against a right-wing takeover of the federal judiciary or express your disapproval of their support for Bush's efforts to stack the courts with ultra-conservative judges.
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