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Advocates Urge Senate Not to Confirm Judges in Election Year

March 4, 2008—Four leading national disability advocacy organizations have urged the Senate Judiciary Committee not to act on any more nominations to the federal courts submitted by the “now-lame duck Bush Administration.”

In letters to committee chairman Patrick Leahy and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, ADA Watch/National Coalition for Disability Rights, the National Council for Independent Living, the American Association of People with Disabilities and the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law asked the Senate to “resist pressure to confirm controversial judicial nominations” in this election year. Senators are urged to follow the longstanding “Thurmond Rule” of withholding confirmation of nominations unless they are noncontroversial or have bipartisan support.

Many Nominees Are Hostile to Disability Rights

“Over the past seven years, the White House has nominated, and the Senate has confirmed, a number of federal judges who have issued hostile decisions weakening the Americans with Disabilities Act and other protections for people with disabilities,” the groups note, citing examples. Recently submitted nominees’ records, they assert, “exhibit a similar callousness regarding disability rights…. If the Senate cares about disability rights and other civil rights, it should not act upon these nominations.”

The joint letter is available in Word and Adobe PDF formats. We encourage other organizations to adapt it for their signatures.