Petition demands Senator Kennedy clear his name

"...No one is above the law and rules of ethics, not even the senior Senator from Massachusetts," Mazzella concluded.

Nearly 4,000 Americans Urge Senator Kennedy to Come Clean on Memogate

CFIF’s 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 6^th 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 6^th Circuit until that court ruled on the affirmative action cases. Jones represented Defendant-Intervenors in the University’s undergraduate case. In the memo, two of Senator Kennedy’s aides recommended he postpone Senate action on a least one 6^th 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 Center’s 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 Center’s 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 Center’s Confirmation Watch project has worked to expose and eliminate the corruption and manipulation that plagues the judicial confirmation process.

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