Controversial Kuhl Nomination Sent to Senate Floor
Feature Story by civilrights.org staff - 5/15/2003
Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee voted narrowly to send to the Senate floor the nomination of Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Carolyn Kuhl to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.Judiciary Committee Democrats were united in opposing Kuhl.
At the May 8 hearing Senator Feinstein (D-Ca.), who is from Kuhl's home state of California, voiced her opposition to the judge's nomination, citing evidence of her hostility to fundamental civil and women's rights issues.
"Superior Court judges do not often handle the complex and vitally important constitutional cases regarding equal protection, employment discrimination, environmental rights, or civil rights that can come before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. It is these socially divisive cases where a nominee's impartiality is most put to the test. And, here Judge Kuhl's record is decidedly sparse."
Some of the most troubling spots in Kuhl's record include:
- In Sanchez v. Scott, Kuhl dismissed invasion of privacy claims asserted by a breast cancer survivor whose doctor had brought a male drug company salesman into the exam room without disclosing who he was. The salesman then observed an intimate examination of the patient. Kuhl held that there was no invasion of privacy as a matter of law because the patient had not objected to the man's presence.
- In Bob Jones University v. U.S., Kuhl urged the Reagan Administration to argue that Bob Jones University was entitled to a tax-exempt status, despite its discriminatory policy of banning interracial dating. In an 8-1 ruling, the Supreme Court discarded Kuhl's position.
- According to a report recently published by the National Women's Law Center, Kuhl wrote an article while in private practice expressing her opposition to affirmative action, which she labeled "a divisive societal manipulation."
"Carolyn Kuhl has a long and troubling record as a right-wing ideologue and as a judge whose record demonstrates indifference to the rights of individuals," said People for the American Way President Ralph G. Neas after Kuhl's nomination was sent to the Senate floor.
According to Wade Henderson, Executive Director of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, conservative Republican appointees already dominate seven of the thirteen federal circuit courts. He warns that if President Bush is elected to another term, every circuit court may eventually have a conservative majority.
