Through the Looking Glass: NOW Opposes Attorney General Nominee Alberto Gonzales

January 26, 2005

As the nation's largest feminist organization, the National Organization for Women (NOW) opposes the confirmation of Alberto Gonzales as attorney general of the United States. The attorney general is supposed to be the chief enforcer of our nation's laws, and yet this nomination to that important post mocks the entire rationale for a Justice Department. We find it the ultimate irony that the record of Alberto Gonzales is replete with examples of his utter disrespect for the rule of law:

As White House counsel, Gonzales played a key role in the decision to nominate virulently anti-choice judges to crucial U.S. Courts of Appeal posts, yet in his confirmation hearing Gonzales admitted that Roe v. Wade is the law of the land.

As the head of the Justice Department, the attorney general is charged with enforcing the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE), which makes it a federal crime to interfere with the legal operation of reproductive health clinics, and yet Gonzales, as chief legal counsel to the president, has not prevented his client, George W. Bush, from openly supporting those constituencies who advocate shutting down and interfering with abortion clinics.

Gonzales has stated that he fully supports the enforcement of the Violence Against Women Act, which is aimed at reducing domestic violence and sexual assault, yet Gonzales is widely viewed as the architect of the policies which resulted in the sexual assaults and tortures of Abu Ghraib.

As counsel to then-Governor Bush, Gonzales was responsible for summarizing arguments in favor of clemency for death row inmates, yet of all the petitions for clemency filed, only one was granted—resulting in a record-breaking 150 executions during Bush's term.

As attorney general, Gonzales would be responsible for enforcing the law, yet he clearly stated that the president has the authority to decide to ignore statutes he finds to be unconstitutional.

A feminist view of the world has no room for an attorney general who sanctions torture as a legitimate means of resolving disputes, nor can it accept an attorney general who believes that the president is above the law.

Rather than be comforted by the confirmation hearings or the nominee's subsequent answers to follow-up questions, we find ourselves even more concerned. We are not surprised that an administration that fabricated its justification for war, and uses creative language to say one thing and do another (e.g. No Child Left Behind, The Healthy Forest Initiative, Clear Skies Act, etc.) would want an attorney general who flouts the law. A Justice Department in Alberto Gonzales' hands would resemble a topsy-turvy Lewis Carroll nightmare. NOW urges the Senate to reject this nominee.

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For Immediate Release
Contact: Mai Shiozaki, 202-628-8669, ext. 116; cell 202-641-1906

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