Black Hispanic Activists to protest treatment of Bush Judicial Nominees

Liberal Activist Group Cited as Key Player in ³Political Hate Crime² Against Hispanic Candidate

For Immediate Release: September 5, 2003 Contact: David Almasi at (202) 371-1400 x106

Members of the African-American leadership network Project 21 will join the Coalition for a Fair Judiciary, Hispanic activists and others in front of the Washington, D.C. offices of People for the American Way at 10:00 am on Monday, September 8, 2003 to protest the group¹s leading role in an ongoing campaign that is denying President George W. Bush of his constitutional right to choose judicial nominees and expect timely hearings and votes on those nominations by the U.S. Senate. People for the American Way is located at 2000 M Street NW in downtown Washington.

On September 4, more than two years after he was first nominated to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia and months into a filibuster that kept him from being confirmed, Washington lawyer Miguel Estrada asked the President to withdraw his nomination. Estrada, who previously served in the Clinton Justice Department, would have been the first Hispanic to serve on that court. House Minority Leader Tom DeLay called the campaign against Estrada a ³political hate crime.²

³In its campaign against these distinguished judicial nominees, People for the American Way does not represent black Americans, Hispanic Americans or pretty much any other American,² said Project 21 member Kevin Martin. ³What they are doing tramples on the Constitution I served in the military to protect and that Miguel Estrada wanted to preserve in the courtroom.²

Special interest groups like People for the American Way are behind the vicious smear campaigns against the President¹s judicial nominees. While these campaigns portray the nominees as extremist, these men and women enjoy high praise from bar associations, bipartisan support and have distinguished judicial records. Despite nominees¹ high qualifications and support, the dissemination of misleading information about them by groups like People for the American Way has allowed the left-wing opponents of the Bush Administration in the Senate to justify their disruptions and delays, undermining the President¹s constitutional authority.

Project 21 has been a leading voice in the African-American community since 1992. For more information, contact David Almasi at (202) 371-1400 x106 or Project21@nationalcenter.org, or visit Project 21¹s web site at http://www.project21.org/P21Index.html.

If you are close to Washington Dc we would love for you to join us with signs and flags if not you can cut and paste this letter to WORD and email it back to me @ kmartin_70@hotmail.com.

Coalition for a Fair Judiciary

September 8, 2003

Mr. Ralph Neas
People for the American Way
2000 M Street, N.W.
Suite 400
Washington, D.C. 20036

Dear Mr. Neas:

We, the undersigned, have banded together to protest your appalling treatment of Miguel Estrada and other federal judicial nominees currently before the United States Senate.

Contrary to popular opinion, you are not the 101st Senator, nor do you speak for us on this or any other matter. For far too long, we have silently watched as you have hijacked the judicial nominations process and subverted the Constitution. Do not expect us to be silent any longer. When extraordinarily qualified men and women nominated for the federal bench are summarily rejected for no other reason than they do not embrace your extremist liberal positions or renounce the tenets of their faith, there is a serious problem in the nominations process.

It is judicial activists on your side of the table who have endangered the civil and political rights of millions of Americans. It is organizations on your team spending buckets of money and countless hours to spread lies destroy stellar legal careers and impeccable reputations of decent men and women who offer themselves for public service in the federal judiciary. It is Senators on your beck and call, armed with your talking points, which viciously attack judicial nominees. The casualty in all of this is nothing less than the Constitution itself.

It is the Constitution, when applied, not interpreted, which protects all of us, not just a few. Ironically, it is precisely those strict constructionists that you seem to fear the most who would be the first to uphold the law no matter how reprehensible to their “deeply held personal beliefs.”

What is “mainstream” to you is extremist liberal ideology to us. What is “advise and consent” to you is “delay and obstruct” to us. What are “deeply held personal beliefs” to you is “character, ethics and integrity” to us. That great divide between our camps is not likely to change anytime soon. It certainly won’t change so long as you continue to mistakenly believe that winning at all costs justifies the shameless smear campaigns you conduct.

The damage done by encouraging the subversion of Constitution may not be of concern to you or your fellow travelers, but one can always hope that a sense of decency will someday take root in your conscience.

In the meantime, however, rest assured that you would be challenged on this battlefield.
Make no mistake; it is a battle we intend to win.

Sincerely,

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