Analysis: Brown’s Hearing Reinforces Case Against Her Extreme Views on Civil Rights and Access to Justice

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: November 4, 2003

Contact: Nathan Richter or Tarek Rizk at People For the American Way

Phone Number: 202-467-4999

People For the American Way has produced an analysis of the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Janice Rogers Brown, nominee for the District of Columbia Court of Appeals. Her testimony reinforced the case against her nomination, said PFAW President Ralph G. Neas.

“Under questioning in the Judiciary Committee, Judge Brown demonstrated again her lack of regard for the basic legal principles that protect our civil rights and liberties. She stood by past statements and rulings that show her to be far out of the mainstream of American legal thought. In her dissents on the California Supreme Court, she has injected her ultra-conservative views into cases involving the rights of consumers, workers and victims of discrimination,” said Neas.

The report details Brown’s record as it was laid out at the hearing, including:

her troubling dissents concerning discrimination, consumer rights, and other issues;

her disturbing disregard for precedent, especially with respect to constitutional and civil rights;

her ultra-conservative philosophical views, demonstrated in her public speeches and adopted in her judicial opinions;

her extreme approach to property rights, including long-discredited legal theories that threaten important governmental actions; and

her troubling disagreement with constitutional protection for fundamental rights and liberties.