Supreme Court nominee seen as threat to women, labor, racial equality

[IndianaGreen]

Objection!!!: Supreme Court nominee seen as threat to women, labor, racial equality
Author: Tim Wheeler
People's Weekly World Newspaper, 07/21/05 09:33

Roberts’ record on equal opportunity and civil rights is also being assailed. In 2001, Roberts wrote a brief in Adarand v. Mineta supporting right-wing attempts to overthrow affirmative action. He also argued against Title IX of the U.S. Civil Rights Act which provides for equal rights for women in college athletic programs.

The Alliance for Justice released a detailed description of Robert’s role in the Reagan administration’s attempt to gut the Voting Rights Act. Roberts, then a deputy solicitor general in the Justice Department, wrote a brief arguing that civil rights groups should be required to prove “discriminatory intent” rather than “discriminatory effect” in determining if the Voting Rights Act had been violated. The Alliance pointed out that it is nearly impossible to prove “intent.”

Roberts has been squarely on the side of big business. As a corporate lawyer, he served as lead counsel for Toyota in Toyota Manufacturing v. Williams, in which he argued for limits on the protections of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The case involved a woman fired by Toyota after being diagnosed with carpal tunnel syndrome injuries she sustained on the job. The court ruled for Toyota that the woman was not protected by the ADA.

Bush unleashed a full-court offensive backed by Senate Republicans to sell Roberts as a moderate marked by “fairness and civility.”

Wade Henderson, executive director of the labor-backed Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, debunked this. “Roberts is no mainstream judge,” he said. “He might well be another justice Scalia or Thomas.” Bush, he charged, “chose the politics of conflict and division over bipartisan consensus” in nominating Roberts.

http://www.pww.org/article/articleview/7410/1/279/

[cornermouse]

1. But he's a nice guy so they have to vote for him.

:sarcasm:

[HockeyMom]

2. He's no friend of the concept of

separation of church and state either.

[wli]

3. Seen as? He is!

[SharonAnn]

4. So white, male executives will be ok then? That's all that's really

important to * and the gang.

They don't want to have to compete with the larger pool.