Hollywood, Fla.
Working men and women and their unions look to the federal courts as a place where they can seek justice—where they can get employers to respect laws requiring fair pay and equal treatment on the job, stop job discrimination and unfair labor practices, win enforcement of their union contracts and arbitration awards, uphold workplace safety rules and enforce other core statutory and constitutional protections.
Because so many crucially important rights are at stake, it is imperative the public have confidence the federal judiciary is fair and balanced and, regardless of outcome, people who come to the courts for relief will get a fair shot at proving their case. A judiciary dominated by appointees from one end of the ideological spectrum undermines confidence in a fair and impartial judiciary.
The judicial appointments system is at a crossroads. The Bush Administration, with the aid of Senate Republicans, is working to stack the courts with ultraconservative appointees, many of whom have track records hostile to workers, women, civil rights, environmental protections and other fundamental rights. Rather than working with senators to identify mainstream nominees for these prestigious lifetime appointments, the administration is taking advantage of Republican obstructionism of the prior administration’s nominees, dozens of whom were blocked in order to leave those seats open for a Republican president. Now the administration is seeking to fill these very seats with ultraconservative appointees who will fundamentally alter the balance on the federal courts for decades to come.
The U.S. Constitution does not give the president the unilateral right to pack the courts with nominees to his liking. Rather, the Senate has an equal role in the process to provide advice and consent on the president’s nominees.
We call on the president to engage in serious consultation with senators, to moderate his judicial appointments and to nominate mainstream judges who represent the values of America’s working families.
We call on the Senate to insist on consultation and moderation in the judicial appointments process, to insist on mainstream judges with balanced records and to reject nominees who fail to meet this test.
A lifetime appointment as a federal court judge is a privilege; it is not a right that attaches to an individual simply because the president has nominated him. These appointments carry profound and almost unparalleled responsibilities and opportunities within our constitutional scheme. Senators are right to demand that nominees to the federal courts demonstrate their qualifications, their fairness and impartiality and their commitment to the role of the courts in upholding and vindicating fundamental rights. And senators are right to expect nominees to provide them with the necessary information to evaluate their suitability for these esteemed positions.
The federal courts, and the rights of all those who live and work in the United States, are too important to allow judicial candidates who stonewall the Senate to occupy these prestigious lifetime posts.