WHEREAS:
The U.S. Constitution gives the President of the United States the responsibility to nominate judges to the federal courts, and the U.S. Senate the responsibility to advise and consent on all federal judicial nominees; and
WHEREAS:
Most of President Trump’s nominees for lifetime appointments on the federal bench have a proven record of hostility towards workers’ rights, women’s rights, LGBTQ rights, civil rights, immigrants’ rights, environmental protection and basic fairness for all Americans, and have clearly demonstrated an inability to be impartial and not interject extremist views in our federal courts; and
WHEREAS:
Only 6 percent of President Trump’s judicial nominees have been people of color and only 25 percent have been women; and
WHEREAS:
Many of these nominees have been deemed “not qualified” by the American Bar Association; and
WHEREAS:
The current U.S. Senate has approved an overwhelming number of President Trump’s judicial nominations without full and exacting scrutiny of their records; and
WHEREAS:
Most of President Trump’s judicial nominees have publicly embraced legal viewpoints which would limit the federal government’s authority to protect important civil rights and have demonstrated hostility to worker protections for public employees and other Americans; and
WHEREAS:
These legal perspectives have also been embraced by a narrow majority of the U.S. Supreme Court, which has already restricted the rights of workers to seek legal redress under important labor and civil rights laws; and
WHEREAS:
The federal judiciary, because of years of appointments by presidents hostile to working families and their unions, has issued a myriad of decisions interpreting existing workplace and worker protection laws in ways that were never intended, rolling back hard-earned protections including most recently in the Janus case; and
WHEREAS:
President Trump’s first appointee to the U.S. Supreme Court, Neil Gorsuch, has demonstrated in his career as a judge a strong bias against working families and the laws and regulations that protect them; and
WHEREAS:
The Republican-controlled U.S. Senate invoked an unprecedented use of the “nuclear option” to rig the rules to ram through the confirmation of Neil Gorsuch and has indicated its intention to do so once again; and
WHEREAS:
President Trump has nominated Brett Kavanaugh, a jurist who has shown an insensitivity to workers and has a history of favoring powerful corporate interests at the expense of everyday Americans. Specifically, Judge Kavanaugh wrote a decision to limit workers’ Weingarten rights during employer investigations. The U.S. Senate once again is poised to rubber stamp this nominee on a party line basis despite the obvious damage an extremist like Kavanaugh will do to America and Constitutional interpretation.
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED:
That AFSCME will stand by, support and fight for public service workers and all other workers under attack by the U.S. Supreme Court and other federal courts; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED:
That AFSCME will continue to play a key role in the federal judicial nominations process to promote nominees who would be fair-minded judges that protect the rights of all Americans; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED:
That AFSCME will encourage the nomination of and support nominees to the federal judiciary who will not overrule, sidestep, misinterpret, invalidate, distort or otherwise attack laws protecting collective bargaining rights, unions, workers’ safety, non-discrimination, fair pay, pensions and retiree health care; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED:
That AFSCME will encourage the nomination of and support judges diverse in race, gender, sexual orientation, national origin and age, and also diverse in professional background to include nominees who represent unions and workers, public defenders, legal services lawyers, civil rights advocates and consumer rights advocates. We will especially support individuals who have an appreciation for workers’ issues and who have at some point in their careers advocated for individuals in need, not just the privileged or corporate interests; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED:
That AFSCME will continue to oppose aggressively any federal judicial nominee whose record or background shows hostility toward workers’ rights, women’s rights, LGBTQ rights, civil rights, immigrants’ rights, environmental protection and basic fairness for all Americans; and
BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED:
That AFSCME will oppose the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court and will oppose any other nominee who does not demonstrate support for workers’ rights but instead supports the interests of big money corporations at the expense of vulnerable and average Americans.
SUBMITTED BY:
International Executive Board