6 March 14 • 2019
jn

T

he U.S. Senate 
recently con-
firmed three 
right-wing federal 
judges in as many 
days.
The confirmation of 
Allison Rushing to the 
U.S. Fourth Circuit 
Court of Appeals and 
of Eric E. Murphy and Chad Readler, 
both to the Sixth Circuit Court of 
Appeals, will buttress the drive by 
President Donald Trump to bend the 
federal judiciary to the hard right. 
The Senate’
s eagerness to so speedily 
confirm extreme individuals to life-
time appointments demonstrates its 
lack of respect for the independence 
of the judiciary. 
Rather than honoring safeguards 
that exist to insulate the third branch 
of government from partisanship, 
Senate Republican leadership con-
tinues to disregard these time-tested 
protections in favor of ideologues 
that will do the bidding of President 
Trump for decades after he leaves the 
White House.
Allison Rushing is a committed 

opponent of LGBTQ rights, argu-
ing that Congress intended that the 
Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) 
reflect the “moral disapproval of 
homosexuality and a moral con-
viction that heterosexuality better 
comports with traditional (especially 
Judeo-Christian) morality.” She also 
argued successfully to reduce work-
ers’
 right in a landmark case involving 
a contract dispute. Her hearing was 
held during a congressional recess, 
over the opposition of Democrats 
who said the timing prevented a full 
airing of her record. A member of the 
right-wing Federalist Society, Rushing 
is the youngest appeals court nomi-
nee to date, having graduated from 
law school just 11 years ago.
As assistant attorney general, Chad 
Readler overruled senior members of 
the Justice Department in arguing in 
Texas v. United States that mandating 
coverage for people with pre-exist-
ing conditions was unconstitutional. 
Readler is a diehard advocate for 
other right-wing causes. He support-
ed the separation of children from 
families at the U.S.-Mexico border; 
advocated for the Muslim ban; 

worked to undermine public educa-
tion; promoted the Trump admin-
istration’
s anti-LGBTQ and anti-re-
productive rights agenda; fought to 
allow tobacco companies to advertise 
to children, including outside day 
care centers; sought to undermine 
the independence of the Consumer 
Financial Protection Bureau; and 
advocated for executing minors.
As the state solicitor of Ohio, Eric 
E. Murphy has worked to make it 
easier for Ohio to disenfranchise vot-
ers. He has argued against marriage 
equality in the landmark Obergefell v. 
Hodges case, has attacked reproduc-
tive rights and has repeatedly sided 
with special interests over the general 
public. His record raises serious con-
cerns that he will undermine critical 
rights and legal protections.
For the sake of our courts — and 
our constitutional rights — Senators 
must insist on fully-vetted, experi-
enced nominees without biases or 
partisan agendas. It is truly the least 
they can do. ■

Nancy K. Kaufman is the CEO of National 
Council of Jewish Women. 

commentary

NCJW Opposes Latest Right-Wing 
Appeals Court Appointees

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views

Nancy 
Kaufman

letters

Beware Otzma Yehudit
I commend the JN for devoting so 
much space to information regarding 
Otzma Yehudit, the extreme right 
party following the racist ideolo-
gy of the late Rabbi Meir Kahane, 
which was recently incorporated into 
Netanyahu’
s Likkud party in order 
for him to be able to form a coalition 
(“Israeli Political Turmoil,” March 7, 
2019, page 31). People’
s memories are 
often short, and there are the young 
among us who never heard of Rabbi 
Kahane and his Kach Party.
It reminded me of attending a 
wedding in 1983 in a Christian Arab-
Israeli village in Upper Galilee, invited 
by a family whom my husband and I 
met earlier that year in Rome. They 
happened to be the family of the vil-
lage mayor who was in a delegation of 
Christian Arabs from Israel who came 
to meet the pope in commemoration 
of the Holy Year. These were people 
very loyal to the Israeli government 
who gave me the royal welcome. I 
remember how I tried to apologize for 
the expressions of hatred that ema-
nated from Kahane and his followers. 
The damage done by them was incal-
culable and it shouldn’
t be allowed to 
repeat itself.

— Rachel Kapen

West Bloomfield

