According to an article in the Washington Times, Elaine Jones, president of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, asked Sen. Kennedy to delay the appointment of Tennessee Judge Julia S. Gibbons to the Sixth Circuit until after that court had ruled on the Michigan race preference cases.
The article quotes from an April, 17, 2002, memo to Sen. Kennedy summarizing Ms. Jones’ request:
“Elaine would like the Committee to hold off on any 6th Circuit nominees until the University of Michigan case regarding the constitutionality of affirmative action in higher education is decided by the en banc 6th Circuit,” two staffers wrote to Mr. Kennedy. “The thinking is that the current 6th Circuit will sustain the affirmative action program, but if a new judge with conservative views is confirmed before the case is decided, that new judge will be able, under 6th Circuit rules, to review the case and vote on it.”
In the memo, the Kennedy staffers endorse that strategy.
Some conservative groups have filed complains, charging that it is improper to try so blatantly to influence the outcome of a pending case. A spokesman for Sen. Kennedy described the complaints as “frivolous.”
To the Hero of Chappaquidick™ the inquest into the death of Mary Jo Kopeckni was “frivolous”, too.
just watched a group of political people in the Iowa caucus off to the same game they
have continued since the tragedy. How long until history repeats itself? And the guilty continue as though they were little gods since money has taught them that they are so above the common people, that they owe no explanations for their actions and watch the reactions from them if any of the ‘cmmon folk’ dare to question them.