(Washington DC) - The Coalition for a Fair Judiciary, along with several grassroots organizations filed a grievance today with the State Bar of Virginia against Elaine Jones, President of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. The complaint details the attempt by Jones to influence the outcome of the affirmative action case in the Sixth Circuit through her request to delay the nomination hearing of Julia Gibbons.

An excerpt from the grievance letter:

On April 17, 2002, Ms. Jones contacted the Office of U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy asking him to delay any Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on nominees to U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit. At that time, the en banc 6th Circuit was actively considering a constitutional and legal challenge brought against the race-conscious affirmative action admissions program used by the undergraduate school at the University of Michigan — a case in which Ms. Jones was acting as counsel to a party, the intervenor-defendant-appellees.

According to a memorandum written by the Senate staffer who spoke with Ms. Jones, the purpose and intent of Ms. Jones' request was "to ask that the Judiciary Committee consider scheduling Julia [Smith] Gibbons, the uncontroversial nominee to the 6th Circuit[,] at a later date, rather than at a hearing next Thursday, April 25th."

Moreover, according to the memorandum, Ms. Jones asked for "the Committee to hold off on any 6th Circuit nominees until the University of Michigan case regarding the constitutionality of affirmative action in higher education is decided by the en banc 6th Circuit."

"This goes far beyond judge shopping and the bar needs to take action here even if the Senate doesn't," said Kay Daly, president of the Coalition for a Fair Judiciary. "The Democrats are hoping they can deflect attention away from the content of these memos because of the damning information contained within. But it is in the public interest for taxpaying citizens to see just how much influence is exerted by these groups on Senators. That's why we released the memos in the first place."

Copies of the grievance letter and the original memos can be downloaded in PDF format by clicking here (or click here for the HTML version). For additional information, please contact Jeff Mazzella (Center for Individual Freedom) at 703-535-5836, Kay Daly (Coalition for a Fair Judiciary) at 703-822-9831, Niger Innis (Congress of Racial Equality) at 212-598-4000 or Mychal Massie (Project 21) at 202-371-1400.