Jeffrey Sutton Confirmed
Feature Story by civilrights.org staff - 4/29/2003
To the "grave disappointment" of the civil rights community, Bush nominee Jeffrey Sutton has been confirmed by the Senate to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.Wade Henderson, executive director of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR), called Sutton the "latest and most extreme example of President Bush's assault on the power of Congress to vindicate the rights of women, minorities, individuals with disabilities, and many others."
Sutton's advocacy has focused on challenging and weakening the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), a popular and important bill enacted by a bi-partisan Congress and signed into law by President George H.W. Bush. He has also argued against allowing private individuals to sue to enforce certain regulations of Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination based on race, color, or national origin; for severe limits on the ability of state employees who are victims of age discrimination to recover damages; and against a federal remedy for victims of sexual assault and violence.
Federal judgeships are lifetime appointments, prompting Henderson to note, "Jeffrey Sutton will now have a lifetime to turn historic guarantees of individual rights and liberties into empty words."
