Quote by Leonard Noisette, quoted in Reducing Racial Disparities in the Criminal Justice System (2000)
UPDATE 6/11: Justin Walker just got cloture. Up for vote Friday or Monday. We need 4 GOP senators to vote against him. Call your friends and family in RED states!
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, pronounced himself “appalled” by the killing of George Floyd. and intends to hold hearings on policing, racial discrimination by police and police/community relations. Frankly, we don’t want to hear him prattle on about the causes of police officers casually administering capital punishment in our streets. We know what causes it – racism – embedded in every layer of our public life. Organizations such as the Marshall Project, Campaign Zero, Movement for Black Lives and the Sentencing Project have been analyzing this issue for years and the House has already put together a bill. The almost all-white, GOP-controlled Senate is hoping we’ll get too distracted by something else to notice that they won’t pass it.
Why worry about judges?: This video came out in Oct. 2019, after Walker’s first successful judicial nomination to a Kentucky District Court. The host makes it clear that those sitting out fighting against his next step, a lifetime appointment on a federal bench, or sitting out voting in the 2020 election because “both the Dems and the GOP are the same,” need to realize that ignoring the GOP takeover of the judicial branch will end up badly for people of color, the LGBTQ community, religious minorities, women’s ability to control their own bodies, public education and anyone who needs clean water or air. Worth the time, even with the commercial breaks.
“McConnell made clear in an interview last week that resuming rapid-fire confirmations of President Donald Trump’s judicial nominees will be the Senate’s top priority when it reconvenes Monday, despite the desperate need for additional relief for frontline workers and the unemployed as the coronavirus pandemic continues to cause mass layoffs across the nation.” (CommonDreams). Justin Walker and Cory Wilson would be dream candidates for far-right extremists in our country…not so good for the rest of us.
Update: Forty pro-democracy and civil rights groups today joined in a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, urging them to halt the process of federal judicial nominations and confirmations at this time, including Indivisible. (League of Conservation Voters letter here, Alliance for Justice letter here.)
Update: The chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has called for an inquiry as to whether McConnell committed ethical improprieties in the creating of a conveniently timed opening on the federal bench for his protégé.
Minimal script: I’m calling from [zip code] and I want Sen. [___] to vote “NO” to Justin Walker and Cory Wilson. They are proven enemies of civil rights, women’s rights, unions, public education, the environment and health care.
More script if you want it: Also, please stop voting for any judicial nominations who are members of the far-right Federalist Society. The extremist views of this group – just 4% of the legal community but more than 80% of Trumps’ nominees, do not reflect those of most Americans.
The word is that she’s up for a full vote of the Senate this week.
Planned Parenthood alert: The bipartisan American Bar Association has unanimously rated Sarah Pitlyk, another extremist Federalist Society member, “not qualified” for this important position, due to her lack of trial experience. She opposes reproductive rights, the Affordable Care Act and the legal right to abortion. She fought to allow businesses and landlords the right to discriminate against women whose private health histories include abortion or birth control. Through her Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, her writings, and legal actions she participated in at forced-birther advocacy firm Thomas Moore Society (TMS), she’s demonstrated that she will impose her own religious beliefs over the lives of women and their families if she gets into a position of power. While the concept of the the Handmaid’s Tale’s Aunt Lydia becoming an judge might make a great Hollywood script, in real life, true-believer Sarah Pitlyk cannot be trusted to apply the law and legal precedents fairly and impartially to everyone who might come before the court.
Update: Oct. 31st – “In a party-line vote on Thursday, the Senate Judiciary Committee advanced the nomination of a St. Louis County anti-abortion and religious rights lawyer in line to become St. Louis’ next federal judge.”
Corrupt Judiciary on the Bench, artist – Thomas Nast, Harper’s Weekly, Jan. 27, 1872
Minimal script for Democratic Senators: I’m calling from [zip code] and I want Sen. [___] to vote “NO” on the following judicial nominees.
Minimal script for GOP senators: I’m calling from [zip code] and I want Sen. [___] to vote “NO” to Sarah Pitlyk, Steven Menashi, Lawrence VanDyke and Halil S. Ozerden. That your party destroyed the “blue slip” system, and no longer seems to care if candidates are qualified or even marginally impartial, will result in rulings that will harm your own constituents. Your support for these candidates implicates you in a corrupt system that will need to be cleaned out at the ballot box. Do the right thing.
Planned Parenthood alert: The bipartisan American Bar Association has unanimously rated Sarah Pitlyk, another extremist Federalist Society member, “not qualified” for this important position, due to her lack of trial experience. She opposes reproductive rights, the Affordable Care Act and the legal right to abortion. She fought to allow businesses and landlords the right to discriminate against women whose private health histories include abortion or birth control. Through her Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, her writings, and legal actions she participated in at forced-birther advocacy firm Thomas Moore Society (TMS), she’s demonstrated that she will impose her own religious beliefs over the lives of women and their families if she gets into a position of power. While the concept of the the Handmaid’s Tale’s Aunt Lydia becoming an judge might make a great Hollywood script, in real life, true-believer Sarah Pitlyk cannot be trusted to apply the law and legal precedents fairly and impartially to everyone who might come before the court.
While we’ve been transfixed in horror by the clown car of Ukraine corruption, and now the bloody results of using Syria as a deliberate distraction from the impeachment inquiry, Mitch McConnell has been laser-focused on the prize. Instead of dealing with the huge stack of legislation piling up from the House, he has been locking in hard-right ideologues for the judicial bench who will pervert American justice far into the future, no matter who becomes president. Since Trump has come to power, McConnell has managed to ram through a least four LIFETIME federal judges who were rated “not qualified by the non-partisan American Bar Association (ABA) Continue reading “Fri – 10/18: “Not qualified”… That should be enough in normal times. Note: We are no longer in normal times. Say “NO” to Justin Walker.”
“Orderly and secure fashion” v. 1st amendment rights: The SCOTUS case involving Domineque Ray, a Muslim death row inmate and his request for an iman at his side during his execution should have been an easy lift. The Alabama Dept. of Corrections’ policy banning all but Christian clergy (what?!) in the execution chamber is blatantly unconstitutional. Alabama knew Ray’s faith since he was first imprisoned. Ray, however, didn’t learn of their exclusionary policy until a date arbitrarily decided to be “too late”. On a 5-4 vote, the Federalist Society members of the court put a state’s interest in keeping a tidy schedule over the 1st amendment rights of a minority prisoner. No matter what your views on capital punishment, or Ray’s guilt, this is a dangerous swipe against religious equality.
Last Thursday, the Judiciary Committee advanced the nominations of 44 of Trump’s nominees to the main Senate floor. creep through the Judiciary Committee like a slow-growing cancer. You may think this issue doesn’t concern you because they don’t represent your area. Think indivisible, people! It’s within these horrors that Trump will be looking for his next Kavanaugh. We are all connected! CALL!
Continue reading “Tues- 2/12: The civil rights apocalypse is coming. Stop Trump’s nominees!”
Today, 40 terrible nominees who do not represent the values of the majority of Americans, will begin to creep through the Judiciary Committee like a slow-growing cancer. You may think this issue doesn’t concern you because they don’t represent your area. Think indivisible, people! It’s within these horrors that Trump will be looking for his next Kavanaugh. We are all connected! CALL!
Minimal script: I’m calling from [zip code] and I want Sen. [___] to know that she/he has my support to stop, in any way possible, this assembly line of inappropriate judicial nominees and the assault on the blue slip process and time periods for examining nominees.
More script if you want it (or email): All nominees with Federalist Society membership need to be opposed, but please concentrate on stopping the following: Chad Readler, Eric Murphy, Allison Rushing, Stephen Clark, Eric Miller, Daniel Collins, Kenneth Lee, and Daniel Bress.
INDIVISIBLE VENTURA 