Nearly
4,000 Americans Urge Senator Kennedy to Come Clean on Memogate
CFIFs
petition demands the Senator "clear [his] name of any unethical
or potentially illegal conduct [he] may have taken to stack the
judicial deck in the most important civil rights cases in more than
25 years."
ALEXANDRIA,
Va. The Center for Individual Freedom today delivered
a petition signed by nearly 4,000 people from across the country
to Senator Edward Kennedy demanding to know whether he obstructed
justice in the University of Michigan affirmative action cases when
they were pending before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th
Circuit.
The
petition springs from 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 all judicial confirmations to the U.S. Court of Appeals
for the 6th Circuit until that court ruled on the affirmative
action cases. Jones represented Defendant-Intervenors in the Universitys
undergraduate case. In the memo, two of Senator Kennedys aides
recommended he postpone Senate action on a least one 6th
Circuit nominee until the case was decided, despite acknowledging
it was wrong to do so.
"It
is past time for Senator Kennedy to break his silence and fess up
to the American people," said Jeffrey Mazzella, the Centers
Executive Director. "The memo makes very clear the intentions
of at least some in his office to fix the outcome of two high-profile,
pending cases. What unethical or criminal actions did the Senator
take? Are we right to assume that his unwillingness to address this
issue implies he has something to hide?"
The
petition, which is posted on the Centers website (www.cfif.org),
lays out the facts and states, "We [the undersigned] respectfully
request that you, Senator Kennedy, fulfill your obligation to the
public to release all details and documents related to Elaine R.
Jones and her request, as well as all details and documents related
to all actions taken or contemplated as a result of the recommendation
of your staff members, so that you may clear your name of any unethical
or potentially illegal conduct you may have taken to stack the judicial
deck in Ms. Jones favor in the most important civil rights
cases in more than a generation." The nearly 4,000 signatures
were collected online over only a two week period.
"This
is not an issue that Senator Kennedy can just sweep under the rug.
No one is above the law and rules of ethics, not even the senior
Senator from Massachusetts," Mazzella concluded.
The
Center for Individual Freedom 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.
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