46 Organizations Endorse Call For Lower Court Expansion That Goes Beyond Judicial Conference Recommendations
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 24, 2021
CONTACT: [email protected]
46 ORGANIZATIONS ENDORSE CALL FOR LOWER COURT EXPANSION THAT GOES BEYOND JUDICIAL CONFERENCE RECOMMENDATIONS
Surge in support comes in advance of House Judiciary Subcommittee hearing.
WASHINGTON, DC— In advance of Wednesday’s House Judiciary Subcommittee hearing on the need for new judgeships, 21 additional organizations endorsed a letter calling for Congress to add judgeships at the circuit and district court level and to go beyond recommendations from the Judicial Conference, joining more than two-dozen organizations who announced their support for robust lower court expansion in December of 2020.
The new signatories are: American Constitution Society, Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, Autistic Self Advocacy Network, Center for American Progress, Climate Hawks Vote, Demos, Committee for a Fair Judiciary, Equal Justice Society, Just Democracy, Lambda Legal, Lawyers For Good Government, Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, Main Street Alliance, National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum, National Health Law Program, NARAL Pro-Choice America, National Employment Law Project, National Women’s Law Center, People For the American Way, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, and The Employee Rights Advocacy Institute For Law & Policy (The Institute).
The letter argues that “Congress’ failure to create new judgeships has devastated the ability of our courts to fulfill the promise of equal justice under the law and exacerbated existing inequalities in our system.” It also says that the Judicial Conference’s recommendations for expanding the number of judgeships are “insufficient to meet today’s crisis in our courts” and that the expansion should go beyond those recommendations. The letter also emphasizes that “adding judgeships also presents an additional opportunity to improve judicial diversity, a crisis that has reached historic proportions under the Trump administration.”
On Wednesday at 10:00am, the House Committee on the Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet will host a hearing titled The Need for New Lower Court Judgeships, 30 Years in the Making.
In June 2020, Demand Justice Chief Counsel Christopher Kang and Executive Director Brian Fallon published an op-ed in The American Prospect arguing for expanding the lower courts to speed access to justice and improve diversity on the courts.
A full list of organizations that have signed on to the call for expansion is below.
- Alliance for Justice
- American Association for Justice
- American Atheists
- American Constitution Society
- American Federation of Teachers (AFT)
- American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME)
- Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF)
- Autistic Self Advocacy Network
- Center for American Progress
- Center for Popular Democracy Action
- Climate Hawks Vote
- Committee for a Fair Judiciary
- Constitutional Accountability Center
- Demand Justice
- Demand Progress
- Demos
- Equal Justice Society
- Freedom From Religion Foundation
- Giffords
- IndivisAbility
- Indivisible
- Just Democracy
- Lambda Legal
- Lawyers for Good Government (L4GG)
- League of Conservation Voters
- Main Street Alliance
- NARAL Pro-Choice America
- National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum (NAPAWF)
- National Council of Jewish Women
- National Education Association (NEA)
- National Employment Law Project
- National Employment Lawyers Association
- National Equality Action Team (NEAT)
- National Health Law Program
- National Women’s Law Center
- People For the American Way
- People’s Parity Project
- Planned Parenthood Federation of America
- Revolving Door Project
- Service Employees International Union (SEIU)
- Stand Up America
- Take Back The Court
- The Employee Rights Advocacy Institute For Law & Policy (The Institute)
- The Immigration Hub
- The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights
- United We Dream
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