Free Republic

July 05, 2005, Sinister Strategies The Left's plan to block judicial nominees. All weekend we heard from the likes of Ralph Neas (People for the American Way), Nan Aron (Alliance for Justice), and other leaders of a left-wing coalition insisting that President Bush nominate a "mainstream conservative" to the Supreme Court, or that he unite the nation with a "pragmatist" or "moderate" in the character of Sandra Day O'Connor. This is real chutzpah. These are the same people and groups that have conspired to undermine President Bush's judicial appointments for over four years, and now seek to derail any nominee...

To adequately follow along, I suggest several sheets of paper (for the flow charts) and a heavy dose of Tylenol (so your head won’t explode). Go back with me in time – just to last summer – those idyllic days when the stench of political tomfoolery had not yet overwhelmed our senses and triggered our gag reflexes. Then the so-called “intelligence memos” appeared on the radio talk show scene. A memorandum written by a Democrat Senate Intelligence Committee staffer detailed a strategy to painstakingly undermine the President’s policies in Iraq and the War on Terror. National security be damned, so...

Washington (CNSNews.com) - Elaine R. Jones, one of the key players in the Senate Judiciary Committee's "Memogate" controversy, reiterated her opposition to President Bush's judicial nominees Wednesday, saying there is nothing more important to liberals than keeping conservative judges off the federal bench. Jones, the former president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, was honored Wednesday night at the liberal Take Back America conference for her leadership in the civil rights arena. Although she didn't mention judicial nominees in her speech, afterward she told CNSNews.com about the issue's importance. In reference to three potential Supreme Court...

WASHINGTON -- Today, on the 50th anniversary of the May 17, 1954, school desegregation decision, the U.S. Civil Rights Commission -- frozen by ideological deadlock -- will debate something important. Shall it investigate whether the Senate's judicial confirmation process was perverted two years ago to influence a landmark civil rights case? Documentary evidence is overwhelming. The NAACP Legal Defense Fund secretly requested that confirmation of a federal appeals judge nominated by President Bush be delayed until the court ruled in favor of affirmative action. The Senate, then under Democratic control, granted the delay. But the document is a powerful senator's...

The campaign manager for Democrat presidential candidate John Kerry is being linked to the Senate Judiciary Committee's "Memogate" controversy, which involves alleged Democrat efforts to delay the confirmation of President Bush's judicial nominees. Mary Beth Cahill, a former chief of staff to Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., left her Senate job last November to become Kerry's campaign manager. But in April 2002 when Cahill worked for Kennedy, her name was attached to a controversial memo spelling out a plan to delay the confirmation of Julia Smith Gibbons to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the Washington Times reported Thursday.Cahill was...

(CNSNews.com) - A government watchdog group says it knows who wrote an incriminating memo to Sen. Ted Kennedy, recommending that he delay the confirmation of one of President Bush's judicial nominees -- apparently to influence the outcome of an important pending case. According to The Center for Individual Freedom, two of Sen. Kennedy's former aides -- in a memo dated April 17, 2002 -- recommended that he delay the confirmation of Judge Julia Smith Gibbons to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit. The reason? To influence the outcome of the University of Michigan affirmative action cases, then...

WASHINGTON (Talon News) -- An investigation by the Senate sergeant-at-arms into strategy memos from the Judiciary Committee that Democrats claim were illegally accessed and released to the press continues to expand. Miguel Miranda, an aide to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, has been placed on leave pending the outcome of an investigation into whether Democrat committee members' computers were illegally accessed. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-UT) also placed an aide on leave last year for his involvement in the matter. The unnamed aide has reportedly left government work. Hatch has been apologetic about the leak of the memos,...

<p>The real scandal is what's in the Democratic memos on judges, not who leaked them.</p> <p>A man from the U.S. Senate's Sergeant-at-Arms Office called this week, asking us to give up the name of one of our sources. A formal probe is under way to discover how last November we got our hands on Democratic strategy memos on how to defeat President Bush's judicial nominees. We politely told the gentleman to take a hike.</p>

 TVC Weekly News: NAACP Leader Resigns Over Judiciary Committee Scandal   Summary: The memogate scandal in the Democratic side of the Senate Judiciary Committee has claimed one victim so far. Elaine Jones, head of the NAACP's Legal and Defense Education Fund, has resigned her post in the wake of complaints lodged against her by Project 21, Coalition for a Fair Judiciary, CORE, and the Center for Individual Freedom before the Virginia Bar Association. Project 21 is a conservative black organization, part of the National Leadership Network of Conservative African-Americans. Jones' resigned because of exposure of her memo to Senator...

Letter Of Grievance To VA State Bar Against Elaine Jones, Pres. NAACP (Washington DC) - The Coalition for a Fair Judiciary, along with several grassroots organizations filed a grievance today with the State Bar of Virginia against Elaine Jones, President of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. The complaint details the attempt by Jones to influence the outcome of the affirmative action case in the Sixth Circuit through her request to delay the nomination hearing of Julia Gibbons. According to a memorandum written by the Senate staffer who spoke with Ms. Jones, the purpose and intent of Ms. Jones* request was...

Groups Claim NAACP Rigged Michigan Affirmative Action Case By Jeff Gannon Talon News December 5, 2003WASHINGTON (Talon News) -- Several groups, including the African-American leadership network Project 21, are asking the Virginia State Bar to investigate the role of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund in an alleged scheme to ensure the outcome of the landmark University of Michigan affirmative action case. The allegations came after Senate Judiciary Committee memos were obtained by the Wall Street Journal that detailed contacts NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund president and director-counsel Elaine R. Jones had with the office of Sen. Edward...

WASHINGTON (Talon News) -- Several groups, including the African-American leadership network Project 21, are asking the Virginia State Bar to investigate the role of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund in an alleged scheme to ensure the outcome of the landmark University of Michigan affirmative action case. The allegations came after Senate Judiciary Committee memos were obtained by the Wall Street Journal that detailed contacts NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund president and director-counsel Elaine R. Jones had with the office of Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA) on April 17, 2002 that sought to delay the confirmation of judicial nominees...

[Juan Non-Volokh, 3:25 PM]The Memos and Ms. Jones: The New York Times editorial board has finally discovered the Senate Judiciary Committee “collusion memos” detailing Democratic and liberal interest group opposition to Bush’s judicial nominees. Though, as one might expect, the Times is more concerned about the manner in which the memos were disclosed – they were allegedly pilfered by a Republican staffer (an act that, if illegal, would justify prosecution) – than their content. As a result, the Times missed the big story here. No, not the confirmation that Democrats opposed Miguel Estrada because he is a Hispanic. (One memo...

For Immediate Release December 4, 2003 Grievance Filed With Virginia Bar Against NAACP Official Charges Elaine Jones with “Intentionally attempting to improperly influence the outcome of a pending case” in which she was named Counsel WASHINGTON, DC -- Several national constitutional and grassroots organizations today filed a grievance with the State Bar of Virginia calling for a full investigation and for appropriate action to be taken against Elaine Jones, President of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. The complaint, signed by the Center for Individual Freedom, the Coalition for a Fair Judiciary, the Congress of Racial Equality and Project 21 charges...

Black Network Files Complaint Against NAACP Attorney Unethical Influence in Shaping Constitutional Cases Charged For Release: December 4, 2003 Contact: David Almasi at 202/371-1400 x106 The African-American leadership network Project 21 is asking the Virginia State Bar to investigate NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, Inc president and director-counsel Elaine R. Jones. "Obstructionism is the order of the day in the Senate," said Project 21 member Gregory Parker of New Braunfels, Texas. "Now we know that this judicial obstructionism is part of a carefully orchestrated plan by a few senators and left-wing special interest groups." The complaint, to be filed...

<p>Several conservative activists charge that an NAACP attorney acted unethically and should be disbarred for asking Sen. Edward M. Kennedy to stall the confirmation of a judicial nominee who the lawyer feared would rule unfavorably on a case involving the group.</p>