Date: Wed, 2 Mar 2005 00:20:15 -0800 (PST)
From: james m nordlund realiteee1@yahoo.com
Subject: Bush's Plan To Stack The Courts Begins Today
To: rad-green@lists.econ.utah.edu
As we write this, the Senate is debating the nomination
of mining and cattle industry lobbyist William Myers III for a lifetime
appointment
to the Circuit Court of Appeals --
the second highest court in the land.
Myers is the first of 20 nominees Bush has re-submitted
in his second term.
All 20 repeat nominees were rejected last term by Senate Democrats
(as compared to 204 judges they accepted)
because these nominees consistently sided with corporate special
interests
over the rights of ordinary Americans.
The Senate has the power to approve or reject judicial nominations
because judges -- above all else --
must be trusted by Americans on all sides
to rule fairly.
So why does Bush refuse to send new nominees
both parties can agree on?
Because while his presidency will be over in 4 years,
the judges he appoints will be on the bench for the rest of their lives.
This is Bush's big push to lock in his hard right,
corporate-friendly ideology for decades to come --
and that is exactly why we must not back down now.
The fight begins today.
The Myers vote is a key test --
and may well determine whether Bush can stack the judiciary,
all the way up to the Supreme Court, with a steady stream of hard right,
pro-corporate judges.
It's crucial that our Senators know that we out here in America
are counting on them to hold the line against all 20 of Bush's rejected,
partisan judges.
Please sign today:
http://www.moveonpac.org/judges/
We will deliver your comments to your Senators
before the crucial votes on these 20 judicial nominees.
Here's a brief summary of just the first three of the 20 partisan judges
re-nominated by President Bush.
William Myers III has never been a judge
and spent most of his career as a lobbyist for the cattle and mining
industry.
[1]
He has written that all habitat conservation laws are unconstitutional
because they interfere with potential profit.
[2] In 2001,
Bush appointed him as the chief lawyer for the Department of the
Interior.
In that role he continued as a champion of corporate interests,
setting his agenda in meetings with former employers
he promised not to speak with,
and even illegally giving away sacred Native American land to be strip
mined.
[3]
Terrence Boyle was a legal aide to Jesse Helms.
As a judge, his signature decisions have attempted to circumvent federal
laws
barring employment discrimination by race, gender, and disability.
[4]
His rulings have been overturned a staggering 120 times
by the conservative 4th District Court of Appeals,
either due to gross errors in judgment
or simple incompetence.
[5]
William Pryor Jr. served as Attorney General of Alabama,
where he took money from Phillip Morris, fought against the anti-tobacco
lawsuit
until it was almost over,
and cost the people of Alabama billions in settlement money
for their healthcare system as a result.
[6]
He called Roe v. Wade "the worst abomination of constitutional law in
our history,"
and has consistently argued against the federal protections for the
civil rights
of minorities, lesbian and gay couples, women, and the disabled.
[7]
If we falter now,
then decades down the road dozens of judges like this
will still be ruling in favor of unchecked corporate greed
and against the basic principles of accountability and fairness.
The Bush Administration is prepared to stop at nothing
to smash Democratic resistance and stack the courts.
As President of the Senate, Dick Cheney
has even threatened to push these 20 through
by using a parliamentary trick so abusive even he calls it the "nuclear
option."
If they can get away with it, the "nuclear option"
would eliminate the right to filibuster-- a rule that has allowed 40 or
more Senators
to keep extremists from all sides off the courts for centuries.
If that happens,
when Supreme Court vacancies begin to open up in a few months
there will be no motivation for Bush to nominate justices acceptable to
both parties,
and no ability for Democrats to oppose even the most dangerous
extremists.
We must draw the line here, by stopping Bush's 20 repeat nominees.
They were rejected once -- they can and must be rejected again.
Please sign the petition today:
http://www.moveonpac.org/judges/
Thanks for all that you do,
--Ben Brandzel, Eli Pariser and the whole MoveOn PAC Team
Tuesday, March 1st, 2005
Notes:
[1] "Unfit to Judge," Community Rights Council, 4/2/04.
[2] "Myers Troubling Legal Philosophy," People for the American Way.
[3] "Environmental Group Calls on Senate to Block Myers Nomination:
Ethical Problems and Anti-Environmental Activism Make Him Unfit for
Judgeship," Friends of the Earth, 2/5/05.
[4] "Federal Judge Terrence Boyle Unfit for Promotion to Appeals Court,"
People for the American Way, 2/23/05.
[5] "Eastern District of North Carolina Terrence Boyle Nominated to the
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit," Alliance for Justice.
[6] Eric Fleischauer, "Pryor Called a Tobacco Sellout," Decatur Daily
News, 10/30/02.
[7] Ann Woolner, "Bush Judicial Candidate Shows How Things Change,"
Bloomberg News, 5/16/03.