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CFFJ CALLS ON MICHIGAN SENATORS TO STOP SIXTH CIRCUIT SHENANIGANS

July 07, 2004

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Audrey Mullen
(202) 861-5677

(Washington, DC) The Coalition for a Fair Judiciary today called on the Senators Carl Levin and Deborah Stabenow to put an end to their obstruction of President Bush s judicial nominees and the shenanigans surrounding the confirmation of judges to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.

"Apparently, to meet the approval of the Michigan Senators, a judicial nominee has to be a shirttail relative to Carl Levin or legislate the leftist agenda from the bench," said Kay Daly, president of the Coalition for a Fair Judiciary. "Character, qualifications and experience do not seem to be a factor in the judicial confirmation process for Senators Levin and Stabenow."

According to media reports, Senator Levin first objected to President Bush s nominees to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals because one of his relatives (the wife of a cousin) was not selected for appointment to the bench.

"Documentation from the Senate Judiciary Committee has clearly shown that the level of obstruction reached a sinister level when extraordinarily qualified judicial nominees for the Sixth Circuit were denied hearings so that the outcome of the affirmative action case would satisfy the extreme leftist special interests," said Daly. "Did the Michigan Senators decry this activity? No. There has been a stunning silence from the Levin and Stabenow camps over this outrage."

A memo from the Senate Judiciary Committee documented a phone call from the NAACP Legal Defense Fund president Elaine Jones to Senator Ted Kennedy requesting that hearings for all Sixth Circuit nominees be delayed until after the affirmative action case in Michigan was decided. The hearings were, indeed, delayed and the case was closely decided in favor of the NAACP agenda.

"The unconstitutional obstruction by filibuster of President Bush s nominees is certainly disturbing, but the Left has now effectively used their obstruction of these nominees to put their thumbs on the scales of justice to affect the outcome of a case," said Daly. "These nominees deserve a fair and simple up or down vote and these games must stop. There is serious damage being done to the federal judiciary."

All four of the President s Michigan appeals court nominees have waited more than two years for a vote, and three have yet to be reported out of the Senate Judiciary Committee.