http://leahy.senate.gov/press/200509/090905.htmlU.S. SENATOR PATRICK LEAHY
CONTACT: Office of Senator Leahy, 202-224-4242
VERMONT
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Democratic Members Of Senate Judiciary Committee
Announce Witness List For Hearings
On Supreme Court Nominee John Roberts Jr.
WASHINGTON (Friday, Sept. 9) – Democratic members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Friday announced their revised witness list for the upcoming hearings on Supreme Court nominee John Roberts Jr to be Chief Justice. The hearings, which begin on Monday, Sept. 12th, will include a number of days of testimony by Judge Roberts as well as testimony from witness panels on the relevant issues surrounding Judge Roberts’s nomination.
Below is an updated list of Democratic witnesses, consisting of national leaders, legal scholars and courageous Americans who represent many of the vital issues facing the nation today, including civil rights, women’s and disability rights, Americans’ right to privacy, and the importance of an open government that serves the interests of the American people.
Carol Browner, Former Administrator, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), 1993-2001
Carol Browner is the longest serving administrator in the history of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). She received the appointment from President Bill Clinton in January 1993, and was unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate. During her tenure, she partnered with business leaders, community advocates, and all levels of government heads to promote common sense, cost-effective solutions to the nation's most pressing environmental and public health challenges. She successfully built broad bipartisan support in Congress to pass two pivotal modern environmental laws - the landmark Food Quality Protection Act and the Safe Drinking Water Act. Browner knows environmental regulation both from the Washington and state perspective. From 1991 to 1993, Browner was Secretary of Florida's Department of Environmental Regulation, one of the nation's largest state environmental agencies. She won praise for dealing effectively with difficult issues involving wetland protection, hazardous waste disposal, and Everglades cleanup. Browner is currently a partner at The Albright Group in Washington, DC.
John Dean, Former White House Counsel
Before becoming Counsel to the President of the United States in July 1970 at 31, John Dean was the Chief Minority Counsel to the Committee on the Judiciary of the United States House of Representatives, the Associate Director of the National Commission on Reform of the Federal Criminal Laws, and an Associate Deputy Attorney General of the United States. He served as Richard Nixon's White House lawyer for 1,000 days. This, in turn, lead to his becoming the key witness before the Senate Select Committee Presidential Campaign Activities (the Senate Watergate Committee), as well as a lead witness for the government in the principal prosecutions undertaken by the Watergate Special Prosecution Force. After recently retiring from a successful career as a private investment banker (mergers and acquisitions), Dean returned to writing and lecturing. Since November 2000, he has written a regular column on law and politics for the on-line site FindLaw and currently he is at work on his seventh book. For the past three years John Dean has also been a visiting scholar at the Annenberg School of Communications at the University of Southern California.
Marcia Greenberger, President, National Women’s Law Center
Marcia Greenberger is the founder and Co-President of the National Women’s Law Center. The creation of the Center 30 years ago established her as the first full-time women’s rights legal advocate in Washington, DC. A recognized expert on gender discrimination and the law, Greenberger has participated in the development of key legislative initiatives and litigation protecting women’s rights.
Wade Henderson, Executive Director, Leadership Conference on Civil Rights
The Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR) is the nation’s premier civil and human rights coalition. Established in 1950, the LCCR was created to promote the passage and implementing of civil rights laws designed to end discrimination and achieve equal opportunity for all Americans. The LCCR — which includes over 180 national organizations — has coordinated the national legislative campaign on behalf of every major civil rights law since 1957. Mr. Henderson is well known for his expertise on a wide range of civil rights, civil liberties and human rights issues. Prior to his role with the LCCR, Mr. Henderson was the Washington Bureau Director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
Coach Roderick Jackson, Birmingham, Ala.
Roderick Jackson is a teacher and the Acting Head Coach of the girls’ basketball team at Ensley High School in Birmingham, Ala. After complaining to school officials about the tremendous disparity in resources and treatment between the girls’ and boys’ basketball teams, Coach Jackson was fired. Coach Jackson went to court to get his job back, and appealed all the way to the Supreme Court. In March, 2005, the Supreme Court decided the case in Coach Jackson’s favor. In a 5-4 decision in which Justice O’Connor wrote the majority opinion, the Court ruled that an individual can sue under Title IX to challenge retaliation against him or her for protesting sex discrimination. In its decision, the Court recognized that prohibiting retaliation is essential if Title IX — or any broad anti-discrimination law — is to provide effective protection against discrimination, and stated that the Title IX enforcement scheme would “unravel” if Jackson were not allowed to proceed.
Beverly Jones, Lafayette, Tenn.
Beverly Jones — a plaintiff in Tennessee vs. Lane and Jones — lost the use of her legs and uses a wheelchair as a result of an accident. Jones, a court reporter, sued under the Americans With Disabilities Act for equal access for people with disabilities to the courthouses in Tennessee. In a 5-4 decision, with Justice O’Connor casting the deciding vote, the Supreme Court upheld Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act, ensuring that Jones and other persons with disabilities have equal opportunities in our society.
Judge Nathaniel Jones, 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Retired
Judge Nathaniel Jones, one of the nation’s most prominent African American judges and a longtime civil rights advocate, served on the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals from 1979 to 2002. Prior to his appointment to the court, Judge Jones served as general counsel of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, where he directed the national response to attacks against affirmative action, led an inquiry into discrimination against black service men in the military and supervised the NAACP’s defense in the Mississippi boycott case that led to the landmark Supreme Court decision that gave individuals and organizations the right to engage in protests under the First Amendment. Judge Jones also served as assistant general counsel to President Lyndon Johnson’s National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders (Kerner Commission) which studied the causes of urban riots in the 1960s. Today, Judge Jones is a senior partner at Blank Rome LLP in Cincinnati, OH.
Congressman John Lewis, (D-Ga.)
Congressman Lewis is often called “one of the most courageous persons the Civil Rights Movement ever produced.” During the height of the civil rights movement — from 1963 to 1966 — Lewis was named Chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, which was largely responsible for organizing student activism toward equal rights. After being named one of the Big Six leaders of the Civil Rights Movement, Lewis organized voter registration drives and community action programs during the Mississippi Freedom Summer, and helped spearhead the historic march over the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala. in 1965, which helped expedite the passage of the Voting Rights Act that same year. After holding a number of elected and appointed positions, Congressman Lewis was elected to Congress in 1986, where he has continued his fight for equal rights.
Karen Pearl, Interim President, Planned Parenthood
Karen Pearl has 30 years of experience in education and non-profit management as well as a background in counseling and health care.
Throughout her career, Pearl has worked to preserve women’s rights and advocated for better access to health care for women. In her role with Planned Parenthood she has strived to create more opportunity for those most in need. As head of the Planned Parenthood of Nassau County, Pearl oversaw the addition of primary care services and the opening of a new health center. Pearl began her career as a preschool teacher, working with children with disabilities.
Robert Reich, Former Labor Secretary, Professor, Brandeis University
Robert Reich is Professor of Social and Economic Policy at Brandeis University and at Brandeis’s Heller School of Social Policy and Management. He has served in three national administrations, most recently as secretary of labor under President Bill Clinton. As the nation’s 22nd Secretary of Labor, Reich presided over the implementation of the Family and Medical Leave Act; led a national fight against sweatshops in the U.S. and illegal child labor around the world; headed the administration’s successful effort to raise the minimum wage; secured worker’s pensions, and launched job-training programs, one-stop career centers, and school-to-work initiatives. Under his leadership, the Department of Labor earned more than 30 awards for innovation and government reinvention. He was awarded the prestigious Vaclav Havel Vision Foundation Prize, by the former Czech president, for his pioneering work in economic and social thought. A 1996 poll of cabinet experts conducted by the Hearst newspapers rated him the most effective cabinet secretary during the Clinton administration. Before taking office, Reich was a member of the faculty of Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. He received his B.A. from Dartmouth College, his M.A. from Oxford University where he was a Rhodes Scholar, and his J.D. from Yale Law School.
Judith Resnik, Professor of Law, Yale Law School
Judith Resnik teaches procedure, feminist theory, federal courts, and large-scale litigation at Yale Law School. Professor Resnik is a co-chair of the Women's Faculty Forum, a university-wide group aimed at fostering scholarship about gender and community for women at Yale. She was a member of the Ninth Circuit Gender Bias Task Force, the first to report on the effects of gender in the federal court system. She is a co-author of its monograph, ‘The Effects of Gender.’ Prior to joining Yale, she was the Orrin B. Evans Professor of Law at the University of Southern California Law Center. Professor Resnik has testified many times before congressional and judicial committees, most recently before the subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee regarding the Senate’s role in the nomination process and before a committee of the United States Judiciary on revisions to the class action rules. She has also been a visiting professor at NYU, Harvard, and the University of Chicago Law Schools. Professor Resnik is a graduate of Bryn Mawr College and New York University School of Law.
David Strauss, Professor of Law, University of Chicago Law School
David Strauss teaches constitutional law, federal jurisdiction, and elements of the law. Professor Strauss is a former special counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee, where he worked during the committee’s consideration of the nomination of David Souter to the Supreme Court. Before joining the faculty, Strauss worked as an Attorney-Adviser in the Office of Legal Counsel of the U.S. Department of Justice and as an Assistant to the Solicitor General of the United States. Professor Strauss has argued 18 cases before the United States Supreme Court. He has served as a member of the Board of Governors of the Chicago Council of Lawyers and is currently chair of the Board of Directors of the Laboratory Schools. Mr. Strauss is, with Geoffrey Stone and Dennis Hutchinson, editor of the Supreme Court Review. He has published articles on a variety of subjects, principally in constitutional law. He graduated from Harvard College summa cum laude in 1973.
Anne Marie Tallman, President and General Counsel, Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund
A granddaughter of Mexican migrant workers and the first in her family to attend college, Anne Marie Tallman was elected President and General Counsel of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF) in 2004, after serving as an executive with the mortgage lending company Fannie Mae. MALDEF’s mission is to protect and promote the civil rights of the 40 million Latinos living in the United States. Tallman also served as the president and CEO of the non-profit Fannie Mae Foundation in Washington. While in this position, she launched the Hispanic Heritage Award Foundation’s Youth Awards, which in just six years awarded $1.1 million in scholarships to more than 400 students in 12 cities. Before joining Fannie Mae, Tallman was Deputy Director for both the City and County of Denver, in charge of the Planning and Community Development Agency. There, she advised Mayor Webb on housing and community development issues impacting Latino and African-American communities.
Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite, Ph.D., Professor of Theology & President, Chicago Theological Seminary
Susan Brooks Thistlewaite, Ph.D. currently serves as the 11th President of the Chicago Theological Seminary. She was professor of theology at CTS for 16 years, director of the Ph.D. center for five years; has a Ph.D. from Duke University, a Master of Divinity (Summa Cum Laude) from Duke Divinity School and a B.A. from Smith College. Chicago Theological Seminary, a seminary of the United Church of Christ, serves Christ and the churches and the wider faith community by preparing women and men in the understandings and skills needed for religious leadership and ministry to individuals, churches and society. Dr. Thistlewaite has authored numerous writings and sermons on religion and society. An ordained minister of the United Church of Christ since 1974, she is the author or editor of 10 books and has been a translator for two different translations of the Bible. Her works include one of the most widely used textbooks in the U.S. to teach theology, the 10th anniversary edition of Lift Every Voice: Constructing Christian Theologies from the Underside.
Reginald Turner, President, National Bar Association
Reginald Turner was sworn in as the 63rd President of the National Bar Association (NBA) on Aug. 5, 2005. Turner has more than 15 years of experience in labor and employment law and governmental relations, is Past President of the State Bar of Michigan and a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation — an honor reserved to less than 1 percent of lawyers in each state. Turner often engages in pro bono representation in important civil rights and civil liberties cases. He was one of the lead counsels in the affirmative action case in involving the University of Michigan where he represented a coalition of civil rights organizations known as Citizens for Affirmative Action’s Preservation, and 17 African American and Latino students. The NBA is the largest and oldest organization of attorneys and judges of color in the world. Founded in 1925, the NBA represents over 18,000 lawyers, judges, educators and law students.
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