NOW Activists Protest Nomination of D. Brooks Smith Outside Federal Court Building

May 20, 2002

"Judge D. Brooks Smith is unfit to serve on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, despite what George W. Bush and his ultraconservative buddies think," said Pennsylvania National Organization for Women (NOW) President Kathy Miller. "A judge who cannot adhere to the judicial code of conduct should be reprimanded, not promoted."

NOW has strongly opposed the nomination of D. Brooks Smith for a lifetime seat as an appellate judge. Among other problems, Judge Smith violated the Code of Conduct for United States Judges by remaining a member of the Spruce Creek Rod and Gun Club, which discriminates against women, for eleven years after promising to resign. Activists will protest Smith's nomination to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals outside the Federal Court Building in Philadelphia where the Third Circuit meets.

Who: Pennsylvania NOW President Kathy Miller
National NOW Action Vice President Olga Vives
And other activists

What: Protest to Oppose the Nomination of D. Brooks Smith

Where: Outside the Federal Court Building
601 Market
Philadelphia, PA

When: Wednesday, May 22
4:30 pm

Note: Canon 2(C) of the Code of Conduct for United States Judges, the ethical rules applicable to federal judges, specifically prohibits federal judges from being members of clubs that invidiously discriminate on the basis of race, sex, religion or national origin. While the Code permits a judge to remain a member of such an organization while making "immediate and continuous" efforts to change the organization's discriminatory practices, this process cannot take more than two years. After two years, if an organization still has not changed its policies, a judge must "resign immediately."

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