Project 21 Press Release: Black, Hispanic Activists to Protest Treatment of Bush Judicial Nominees; Liberal Activist Group Cited as Key Player in “Political Hate Crime” Against Hispanic Candidate – September 2003

Liberal Activist Group Cited as Key Player in “Political Hate Crime” Against Hispanic Candidate
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 group’s 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 “political hate crime.”

“In 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,” said Project 21 member Kevin Martin. “What they are doing tramples on the Constitution I served in the military to protect and that Miguel Estrada wanted to preserve in the courtroom.”

Special interest groups like People for the American Way are behind the vicious smear campaigns against the President’s 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 nominees’ 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 President’s constitutional authority.

Project 21 has been a leading voice of the African-American community since 1992. For more information, contact David Almasi at (202) 507-6398 x106 or [email protected], or visit Project 21’s website at http://www.project21.org/P21Index.html.

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