Senate Poised to Vote on Shedd Nomination
Feature Story by Julie Fernandes - 11/19/2002
The Senate is poised to vote on the nomination of Dennis Shedd to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. Shedd, a former aide to Senator Strom Thurmond (R-SC), has been strongly opposed by civil rights groups who argue that Shedd's eleven-year record on the federal district bench reflects hostility towards plaintiffs in civil rights cases, including minorities, women and persons with disabilities, a desire to limit Congress's authority to enact protective legislation that is applicable to the states, and insensitivity to issues of race.Wade Henderson, Executive Director of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, said that the nomination of Shedd to the Fourth Circuit is "the latest in a string of examples of President Bush's attempts to pack the federal judiciary with individuals whose views are far outside the mainstream of America." According to Henderson, "Senators who vote to confirm Dennis Shedd will send a signal to women, racial minorities, workers, and consumers across America that their voices will not be heard. The message is that nominees who are hostile to civil rights, women's rights, and Congress's authority to protect those rights, will get lifetime appointments to the all-powerful federal courts of appeals."
Orrin Hatch (R-UT), in a speech yesterday on the Senate floor, emphasized his desire to have Shedd confirmed, in part as a favor to retiring Senator Thurmond and in part because Shedd is a former aide to the Senate Judiciary Committee. As Hatch has put it in the past, "he is one of us."
Henderson, however, has pledged that LCCR "will continue to fight to ensure that individuals confirmed to the federal courts are committed to the protection of equal opportunity, individual rights, and fundamental freedoms. We know that the communities that we represent and the American people want moderate federal judges who will fairly interpret the law based on judicial precedent and common sense --not activist judges who will decide cases based on their personal ideological goals to seriously harm civil rights protections for all Americans."
A vote on Shedd is expected before the Senate adjourns on Wednesday.
