I am Linda Chavez-Thompson, Executive Vice President of the AFL-CIO.  The AFL-CIO represents 13 million working men and women and their families across America. 

I am here today to add my voice to those of other Latino leaders who oppose the nomination of Miguel Estrada to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

And I am proud to stand with more than 50 other Latino labor leaders who recognize that we must speak out today to say our rights are too important, and these lifetime appointments are too important, to let the Senate be a political rubber stamp. 

Miguel Estrada is a mystery nominee who refuses to answer questions – a nominee who has refused to tell the Senate where he stands on civil rights…workers’ rights…constitutional rights...

Working people can’t trust a silent nominee to assure us that the federal courts will protect our right to a fair and safe workplace, to minimum wages, and the right to organize a union. 

No court, other than the U.S. Supreme Court, means more to working people than the D.C. Circuit.  This court hears more labor law appeals than any other court in the country and it makes or breaks the legal rights of working people. 

For the public to trust our judicial system it is essential that workers, and the public, believe that federal judges are fair and impartial, and will give workers a fair shot at proving their case.

Mr. Estrada had an opportunity to make the case at his confirmation hearing that he would be that kind of judge.  But he chose silence over answers. 

Our rights are too important to give a nominee who stonewalls the Senate a lifetime appointment to the second most important court in America.  We will not put our future in the hands of someone who will not tell us about his past. 

Some of Mr. Estrada’s supporters have claimed that those opposing Mr. Estrada’s nomination are anti-Hispanic.  The hypocrisy here is mind-boggling.

Where were those same Senators when numerous Latinos nominated to be judges by President Clinton were delayed and blocked?

Where was their outrage when Republican Senators blocked Enrique Moreno, a highly qualified Latino nominee from El Paso, Texas, to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals?

Where was their outrage when Jorge Rangel of Texas never even got a hearing on his nomination to the Fifth Circuit?

Or when the Republicans delayed Richard Paez’s nomination for four years before he finally was confirmed to the Ninth Circuit?

As a Latino woman, I do not take the decision to oppose Mr. Estrada’s nomination lightly. 

I, and the organization I represent, am deeply committed to a diverse federal judiciary.  We have fought for the confirmation of Latino nominees, and we will continue to do so.  And we will continue to fight for a fair and impartial justice system that works for working people.

But in the meantime, we urge Senators to stop Mr. Estrada’s nomination when they vote on the filibuster tomorrow.