Alito Nomination Threatens Civil Rights Protections
The nomination of U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Samuel Alito to the United States Supreme Court is cause for serious concern among Americans who treasure civil rights, said Rev. Timothy McDonald, Chair of the African American Ministers In Action and Pastor of First Iconium Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia.
"The President's political base made it clear they would settle for nothing less than a Supreme Court nominee they could count on to carry out their agenda," said Rev. McDonald. "That agenda puts at risk civil rights protections that have brought our country closer to the ideas that Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr. envisioned. It is unfortunate that while Rosa Parks was being honored in the U.S. Capitol for moving our nation forward, President Bush was nominating an activist judge whose confirmation would undermine our legal protections and move us in the other direction."
"We’ve come too far as a nation to turn our back on the civil rights protections that so many people, fought, bled, and died for."
-- Rev. Timothy McDonald, AAMIA ChairSandra Day O'Connor was the fifth and decisive vote in many important decisions affecting civil rights, environmental protections, personal privacy, reproductive health, religious liberty, consumer protection and much more. Replacing Justice O'Connor with an ideologue would weaken the legal protections Americans have counted on the Court to uphold, said Rev. McDonald.
Said Rev. McDonald, "We’ve come too far as a nation to turn our back on the civil rights protections that so many people, fought, bled, and died for."
AAMIA ministers will impress upon senators the importance of the upcoming vote, and will challenge senators to cast a vote for the people that they serve and reject the nomination of Judge Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court.
For more information about Judge Samuel Alito's background, see www.savethecourt.org.