African-American Leaders Voice Opposition to Janice Rogers Brown
Feature Story by civilrights.org staff - 11/5/2003
Prominent African-American leaders called the Bush administration's judicial nominations strategy "cynical" and Janice Rogers Brown, one of the administration's controversial nominees, "out of the American mainstream," at a press conference today in Washington, D.C.Speakers representing several national organizations denounced the administration for nominating judges – including certain women and ethnic minorities – whose records display hostility toward civil rights, workers' rights, women's rights, individual rights, and civil liberties.
National organization leaders at the press conference were Julian Bond, chairman of the board of directors for the NAACP; Reverend Dr. Joseph Lowery, chairman emeritus for the Black Leadership Forum and president emeritus for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference; Dr. Dorothy Height, president emeritus for the National Council of Negro Women and chair for the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights; William Lucy, president of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists and international secretary-treasurer for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees; Clyde Bailey, president of the National Bar Association; and Julianne Malveaux from the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority National Social Action Commission.
Janice Rogers Brown, currently a justice on the California Supreme Court, has been nominated for a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. To date, almost 80 national organizations, and more than 200 law professors and legal academics, have voiced their opposition to Brown's confirmation.
