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Top Story NGLTF: Bush is Packing Courts with Right-Wing Ideologues Members Urged to Call Their Senators and Oppose Jay Bybee Senate Republicans Eager to Rubber Stamp Bush Extremists Compiled By GayToday Sens. Orin Hatch and Patrick Leahey will oversee the judicial hearing of Jay Bybee, whose nomination is opposed by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Washington, D.C.--George W. Bush has nominated a right-wing slate of judicial appointments as part of a plan to pack the federal judiciary while the Republicans have control of the Senate and its confirmation process, according to the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. (NGLTF) "While the entire plan is troubling," says NGLTF, "we specifically oppose the nomination of Jay Bybee to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit." People for the American Way has been voicing similar concerns. PFAW President Ralph Neas says: "Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee have signaled that they are ready to rubber stamp President Bush's judicial nominees, no matter how extreme or how unwilling to tell the American people how they will approach important constitutional issues as a judge. If the full Senate goes along, Americans could lose fundamental rights, freedoms, and protections that they have enjoyed for decades. It is time to stand and fight." Why Assistant Attorney General Jay Bybee is Dangerous NGLTF is opposing the nomination of Assistant Attorney General Jay Bybee to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. It says that an initial review of Bybee's record shows disturbing disregard for the rights of GLBT people and for civil rights legislation in general. The most publicized example, explains NGLTF, is an article in a 1997 law review in which Bybee offers "an extremely troubling analysis" of the landmark case of ^Romer v. Evans, ~in which the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Colorado's Amendment 2 on the basis that by repealing all local civil rights ordinances that prohibited discrimination based on sexual orientation, and requiring a state constitutional amendment to pass any sexual orientation-inclusive civil rights laws in the future, the Amendment violated the Equal Protection Clause of the fourteenth amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Bybee asserts his view that sexual orientation-inclusive civil rights laws are nothing more than government sponsored "preferences" for "homosexuals." Bybee supports the rights of state governments to prevent localities from passing sexual orientation-inclusive civil rights ordinances, which he states amount to "favorable treatment based on ... sexual orientation." Bybee offers proposed language for "an Amendment 2 that works," in his article, so that the state could effectively "repeal the three city ordinances that gave rise to Amendment 2 [and] ... make it more difficult for person in Colorado to obtain preferences in any law based on sexual orientation." Oppose the Bybee Nomination: Confirmation hearings are underway and the Senate will vote very soon. Contact your Senators now! Call the US Capitol Switchboard to contact your Senators by phone: 202-224-3121. Look up your Senators, their office information and e-mail contact at: http://www.senate.gov Review the US Senate Judiciary Committee hearing schedule at http://judiciary.senate.gov A brief on Bybee from the Committee for Judicial Independence: http://www.ngltf.org/downloads/bybeenomination.pdf Leadership Conference on Civil Rights on other Bush nominations: http://www.civilrights.org/issues/nominations/index.html

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