FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 24, 2004
Contact: Jeffrey
Mazzella
703.535.5836
CFIF
Launches Ad Campaign Questioning Senator Kennedy on Obstruction
of Justice
Alexandria,
VA The Center for Individual Freedom today launched the
first in a series of ads
questioning U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA) on whether or not
he "obstructed justice" in the University of Michigan
affirmative action cases then-pending before the U.S. Court of Appeals
for the 6th Circuit.
The ad campaign
focuses on an April 17, 2002, memorandum to Senator Kennedy from
one of his aides detailing a request from Elaine Jones, President
and Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund,
to delay Senate action on all judicial nominees to the U.S. Court
of Appeals for the 6th Circuit until after the affirmative
action cases were decided by that court. Jones represented Defendant-Intervenors
in the case challenging the constitutionality of the Universitys
undergraduate affirmative action admissions policy.
"Senator
Kennedy has some explaining to do," said Jeffrey Mazzella,
the Centers Executive Director. "Its clear to us
that Jones transgressed ethical boundaries when she attempted to
stack the judicial deck in her favor. It is also clear to us that
two of Senator Kennedys aides violated those same ethical
boundaries when they made the recommendation to postpone Senate
action on at least one nominee to the 6th Circuit, despite
acknowledging the impropriety of doing so. What is not clear is
what, if any, actions Senator Kennedy took to ensure that no
new judges were confirmed to the 6th Circuit before
the cases were decided," Mazzella continued.
"Senator
Kennedy has violated the publics trust in his role as a U.S.
Senator," said Mazzella. "Yet, despite ample opportunities
to clear his name of any wrongdoing, Senator Kennedy continues to
hide behind a wall of silence."
The
first round of ads is scheduled to run this week in The Washington
Times and The Hill.
"We have
heard from thousands of individuals from across the country demanding
to know if Senator Kennedy used his power to obstruct justice
in the most important civil rights cases in more than 25 years,"
said Mazzella. "Its time for Senator Kennedy to come
clean. He owes that much to his constituents and the American people."
The Center
for Individual Freedom (www.cfif.org)
is a nonpartisan constitutional advocacy group that fights to protect
individual freedom and rights in the legal, legislative and educational
arenas. Since 2001, the Centers Confirmation Watch project
has worked to expose and eliminate the corruption and manipulation
that plagues the judicial confirmation process in the United States
Senate.
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