12 Nov 2003 Project 21 Press Release: Black Group Critical of Sharpton’s Civil Rights Flip-Flop
Members of the African-American leadership network Project 21 applaud the majority of U.S. senators seeking an end to obstructionist tactics that are keeping many federal judicial nominees from receiving a timely vote on their nominations.
To draw attention to this judicial crisis, these senators will participate in a 30-hour marathon session beginning at 6:00 PM on Wednesday, November 12 and running through the following evening. Project 21 member Mychal Massie, a Pennsylvania small business owner, will take part in a 3:30 AM press conference and Project 21 director David Almasi will take part in a 12:30 AM press conference, both to be held in the Mansfield Room of the U.S. Capitol, to discuss this crisis.
A minority of senators is engaging in the filibuster of judicial nominees, essentially increasing the number of votes needed for confirmation from the normal 51 votes to 60. Some judicial nominees have been waiting for a Senate vote since May of 2001, and many of these seats are considered “judicial emergencies” due to the massive caseloads experienced by the courts they serve.
“Obstructionism is the order of the day when it pertains to how liberals are thwarting the President’s appointments to the bench,” said Project 21 member Murdock “Doc” Gibbs, a musician from Coppell, Texas. “The public should be outraged that such experienced, respected and highly-qualified judges are being treated like second-class incompetents – all because they don’t pass the liberal litmus test.”
“An up-or-down vote is not only necessary, but it simply fair. Allow the nominees’ accomplishments while on the bench to stand for themselves,” said Project 21 member Michael King, a consultant from Atlanta, Georgia. “For the leftists on Capitol Hill and elsewhere to vilify nominees like Janice Rogers Brown, who is black, based on their social and political ideologies is not only wrong, but it demonstrates that their vaunted claims of caring about civil rights and advancement for people of all creeds and colors are nothing more than window dressing for their own racist views.”
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.