Another BOB JONES special...only this time for the Court of Appeals!
Liberal Groups Urge Rejection of Bush Court
Choice
Coalition asks Boxer, Feinstein to do all they can to prevent Senate confirmation of the
conservative nominee for 9th Circuit bench.
By Jean Guccione, Times Staff Writer
A coalition of liberal groups representing women,
minorities and workers urged California's two U.S.
senators Friday to do everything in their power,
including a filibuster on the Senate floor, to stop the
nomination of conservative Judge Carolyn B. Kuhl to
the federal appeals court in San Francisco.
The opposition to Kuhl's nomination could be a
warmup for a larger fight over the ideology of judicial
candidates if a seat opens on the U.S. Supreme Court
this year.
Kuhl, a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge,
was renominated to the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of
Appeals by President Bush this month after the
Republicans won control of the Senate in November.
Her first nomination effort ended last year without a
hearing before the Democrat-controlled Senate
Judiciary Committee.
Critics said at a Los Angeles news conference Friday
that Kuhl's conservative ideology alone makes her unfit
for the federal appellate bench. The American Bar
Assn. has rated Kuhl "well-qualified" for the job.
"She poses an imminent threat to women if she is
confirmed," said Katherine Spillar, executive director
of the Feminist Majority. "She has gone on the record
repeatedly, completely opposed to abortion rights in
this country."
As a deputy attorney general in the Reagan administration, Kuhl wrote a
friend-of-the-court brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn Roe vs.
Wade and outlaw abortion. She also lobbied for tax-exempt status for Bob
Jones University despite its policy against mixed-race dating on campus.
Representatives of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People
Legal Defense Fund, United Farm Workers and disability rights and taxpayer
groups joined women's rights advocates Friday in opposing Kuhl and other Bush
nominees they believe would bring their "right-wing ideology" to the federal
bench.
Lawyer Mark Kleinman, who represents the national consumer group Taxpayers
Against Fraud, said he represented a whistle-blower who was denied attorney
fees by Kuhl in a Los Angeles courtroom. Kuhl's decision was reversed on
appeal.
"I'm here to tell you that this nomination is worse than a mistake. It is dangerous,"
he said. "To the present day, she has demonstrated not just a disregard ... but an
active hostility toward any statute that might protect whistle-blowers or the public
from companies that do horrible things."
One speaker after another urged Democratic Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne
Feinstein to oppose Kuhl's nomination in any way, from blocking her committee
hearing to filibustering to stop the Republican-controlled Senate from casting a
confirmation vote.
Last year, Boxer opposed the nominee and did not return "a blue slip," a process
named for the blue consent form on which home-state senators voice their
opinions on whether the nominee should receive a committee hearing.
Boxer said in a statement released Friday that she opposes Kuhl's nomination
because she is "out of the mainstream and not representative of the values shared
by most Californians on such matters as women's rights, civil rights, defense of
tobacco companies, privacy rights, whistle-blower protection and consumer
rights."
A spokesman for Feinstein said that the senator has taken no position on Kuhl's
nomination and that she believes the judge should have a hearing before the
Senate.
Kuhl declined to comment Friday through a spokesperson, but the Bush
administration maintained its support for her. "The president is strongly
committed to this nominee," a White House official said Friday.
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