NOW Opposes Extremist Judicial Nominees—Regardless of Gender

November 13, 2003

"NOW continues to oppose Janice Rogers Brown, Carolyn Kuhl and Priscilla Owen for seats on the federal bench," said National Organization for Women (NOW) President Kim Gandy. "We hold every nominee to the same standards, regardless of gender, and these women meet an extremist standard, not a fairness standard. No judicial nominee will or should receive less scrutiny for a lifetime appointment just because she was born with ovaries." NOW has been working in coalition with more than 100 groups—including the American Association for University Women, People for the American Way, NAACP Legal Defense Fund and the Mexican American Legal Defense Fund—in opposing these and other ultra-conservative nominees.

"Senate Republicans are lumping together the nominations of three right-wing women judges—Brown, Kuhl and Owen—for a cloture vote," Gandy said. "Their Orwellian attempt to paint organizations and activists who oppose these nominations as anti-woman is laughable. George W. Bush and his Senate buddies aren't fooling anyone who cares about women's rights as they push their pet judges through the Senate. NOW activists across the country are contacting their senators by phone, fax and e-mail urging them to stay strong, and to filibuster every judicial nominee who opposes women's rights and civil rights. To date, our members have sent more than 170,000 messages to senators."

"As sitting lower court judges, Janice Rogers Brown, Carolyn Kuhl and Priscilla Owen clearly demonstrated their inability to separate their political ideologies from their judicial rulings," Gandy said. "Brown was the first California Supreme Court Justice to receive an "unqualified" rating from the state bar and still be nominated by the governor. Complaints filed by her peers called her 'insensitive to established legal precedent' and said she 'lacked compassion and intellectual tolerance for opposing views.' As a Justice Department Attorney in the 1980s, Kuhl urged the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade and supported the publicly-funded Virginia Military Institute's refusal to admit women. Owen was rejected by Senate committee because of her unconscionable record, and is known as part of 'far right wing' of the Texas Supreme Court."

"It seems George W. Bush and his cronies think they have a gender card to play when it's convenient for them to do so. To quote my ten-year old daughter, 'as if!,'" Gandy said. "Perhaps GOP senators have forgotten that over 80 percent of Bush judicial nominees are men and that the GOP blocked more than a dozen strong female judges nominated by President Clinton. The most serious problem we face now is that 98 percent of Bush's conservative nominees have been confirmed for lifetime appointments (168 federal judges so far) and those judges are already moving the federal courts away from their decades-long history of standing up for civil rights."

"NOW is grateful to all senators who have rejected the Bush administration's misleading campaign to pack the courts with extremist judges and we encourage them to continue the fight for a fair and independent judiciary," Gandy said.

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