Wed. – 8/15: Don’t give a gavel to David Porter.

Action #1 – Vote “Oh, God, NO” on David Porter for the Third Circuit

David Porter is so far outside the legal mainstream, much less the 21st century, that his own state blocked him from becoming a district judge. They were worried that he wouldn’t be able to fairly judge matters of civil rights, women’s reproductive rights, LGBTQ equality, environmental protection and workers’ rights. The basics. And so are we.

Minimal script: I’m calling from [zip code] and I want Sen. [___] to  vote “NO” on the nomination of David Porter for a lifetime judgeship on the Third Circuit federal appeals court.

Contact
Senator Feinstein: email DC (202) 224-3841, LA (310) 914-7300, SF (415) 393-0707, SD (619) 231-9712, Fresno (559) 485-7430
and Senator Harris: email DC (202) 224-3553, LA (213) 894-5000, SAC (916) 448-2787, Fresno (559) 497-5109, SF (415) 355-9041, SD (619) 239-3884
Other Contacts: https://hq-salsa.wiredforchange.com

Well, Rachel, he’s baaaack. So, now it’s up to us to stop this guy again.

• He’s a one-blue-slip wonder: Sen. Bob Casey Jr. (D-PA) had withheld his blue slip on Porter. Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA), who’d vetoed Obama’s choice in 2016, Rebecca Haywood, a well-qualified applicant who would have been the first African-American woman on the Third Circuit by simply NOT returning his slip, was able to nominate Porter due to Chairman Grassley’s recent conversion to “Slip, shmip, anybody the GOP wants is OK by me”. (vetting)(PFAW)(post-gazette)
• Even other lawyers don’t like him: As Rachel said, he was blocked for District Court judgeship in 2014 for his extreme views. Legal groups were able to raise 40,000 signatures against him.
• Nothing to see here: He’s given a lot of money to Toomey’s campaigns.
• He’s inexperienced: He’s never held judicial office. He is a corporate litigator.
• He won’t answer the questions: He wouldn’t answer whether or not Roe v. Wade (abortion rights) and Brown v. Board of Education (desegregation of schools) were decided correctly.
• He’s a partisan activist: He’s a member of the Federalist Society and other ultraconservative groups. The Federalist Society is a hyper-conservative, right-wing organization supporting the advancement of attorneys who are anti-LGBT, anti-environment, anti-worker and in favor of injecting religion into public institutions. Their viewpoint is that of the moneyed elite, who would return us to the time when corporations enjoyed limitless power and abuse over every aspect of our lives.
• He’s not a fan of diversity: With his local Federalist club, he hosted an anti-immigration group called (of course) Center for Equal Opportunity. They’re opposed to affirmative action as well as bilingual education and believe that ethnic and racial diversity have no benefits.
• In case we missed it elsewhere, he’s against the following:
  • abortion rights
  •  gay marriage
  • restrictions on guns
  • the New Deal
  •  protections for workers 
• He’s also not a fan of the environment:
  • He has criticized congressional authorities to regulate mining.
  • He represented the PA GOP in an attempt to permit fracking in state forests.
• The separation of church and state is hard!: He has contributed to the conservative, religiously-based think tank “Center for Vision and Values“, whose vision and values are not interested in the following:
  • LGBTQ rights, including marriage and transgender issues.
  • the “unconstitutional” minimum wage.
  • the “unconstitutional” Affordable Care Act.
  • the Violence Against Women Act.
  • birth control, for goodness sakes.
  • the “unconstitutional” fair share fees for public employees
  • The Center for Vision and Values’ is part of Christian Grove City College and he’s a member of their Board of Trustees.
  • The school does not allow students to accept federal financial aid so it doesn’t have to comply with federal anti-discrimination law.
• His friends have trouble with the concept too: He teamed up with hard-right anti-gay theocracy-fan ex-Senator Rick Santorum to found the Pennsylvania Judicial Network, which opposed the nomination of SCOTUS Justice Sonia Sotomayor.

Reading 

• Alliance for Justice report on David Porter, Alliance for Justice
• Report on David Porter, Vetting Room
• Objections to David Porter’s Nomination, People For The American Way
• Letter Opposing David Porter’s Nomination, National Employment Lawyers Association (NELA)
• Fact Sheet on Porter’s Opposition to Women’s Rights, NARAL Pro-Choice America
• David Porter Files, a website set up by local activists
• “Trump judicial nominee plays dumb about his own past,” Salon
• Separation of Church and State: Santorum vs. Madison (atlantic)
• Theocracy and its Discontents (nytimes)
• Here’s his application form.