Update: Coalition Opposes Extremist Judicial Nominees

View or Read the Ad Real Player Version Windows Media Version Quicktime Version Text Version Terrence Boyle's Record on Disability Rights More Information on Judicial Nominees from civilrights.org Bazelon Center Issues Page on Civil Rights and the Americans with Disabilities Act Get Involved... Support the Bazelon Center. Your tax-deductible donation helps the Bazelon Center keep you informed on important developments in mental health law and policy. Not a Subscriber? Sign up now to receive action alerts and updates from the Bazelon Center.

(July 21, 2004)— The Bazelon Center needs your help to stop the confirmation of extremist judges whose radical agendas would undermine the fundamental American rights of tens of millions of people with disabilities.

Today the Bazelon Center and twenty-three civil rights, environmental, women’s, health, religious and other organizations released an advertisement spotlighting the extreme views and records of many of the Bush Administration’s nominees for lifetime seats on the federal courts.

View or Read the Ad Now

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In the ad, the groups call on the Senate to reject nominees whose views are outside the mainstream and threaten access to opportunity and basic protections from discrimination.

Two nominees opposed by the Bazelon Center are already in place. We need your help to stop another.

A New Threat on the Horizon

Terrence Boyle: Boyle also has a history of hostility toward the ADA and civil rights laws. He has consistently ruled against individuals with disabilities in cases brought under the ADA and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. President Bush nominated Boyle to the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, which has jurisdiction in North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia and Maryland, but the Judiciary Committee has yet to hear his nomination.

• Read more about Boyle’s record

A date has not been set for Boyle’s confirmation hearing in the Senate, but advocates should remain vigilant. Boyle’s nomination could come up quickly, and advocates should be prepared to call their Senators to urge them to reject this radical judicial activist.

Extremist Nominees Already in Place

• Jeffrey Sutton: The Senate has already confirmed Sutton to a lifetime appointment on the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, which has jurisdiction in Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee. Sutton is a judicial activist who has argued that the protections of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) were “not needed” and has sought to undermine other key civil rights protections.
• William Pryor: Faced with substantial resistance to the confirmation of William Pryor—a judicial activist who sought to undermine the ADA’s protections against employment discrimination in the Garrett case—President Bush did an end-run around the Senate confirmation process during a brief Congressional recess and appointed Pryor to the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, which has jurisdiction in Alabama, Florida, and Georgia.