Working families across the country are overwhelmingly opposed to threats by the Republican leadership to eliminate the judicial filibuster and pack the federal courts with right-wing, extremist judges. In response to an AFL-CIO online campaign, working people sent more than 80,000 e-mails and faxes to Senators urging them to reject Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist's attempts to overturn Senate rules in order to meet President Bush's goal of appointing judges hostile to working family issues.

Judicial nominees Janice Rogers Brown and Priscilla Owen are among the candidates whose records are a direct threat to the interests and concerns of workers. In her speeches and legal opinions, Brown expressed a disdain for regulations designed to protect workers and consumers. She has called programs like Social Security "cannibalization" by senior citizens and has compared New Deal legislation like the minimum wage and the 40-hour workweek to a socialist revolution. Owen has tried to rewrite Texas civil rights law to make it harder for workers to prove their rights were violated. Their views reflect a deeply held ideology that is hostile to working families and their controversial opinions would seriously undermine workers' rights, civil rights and the environment.

The Bush Administration is determined to skew the balance of the federal courts by pressuring the Republican leadership to abandon the democratic principles of the judicial nominations process. We urge Congress to listen to the American people and call on President Bush to nominate mainstream candidates to help create a fair and balanced judiciary.

Contact:  Suzanne Fflokes (202) 637-5018