Progressive Groups Deliver 110,000 Signatures Urging Senate to Reject Controversial Trump Pick Steven Menashi
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 10, 2019
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PROGRESSIVE GROUPS DELIVER 110,000 SIGNATURES URGING SENATE TO REJECT CONTROVERSIAL TRUMP PICK STEVEN MENASHI
Call to Action as Republicans Rush to Consider Judicial Nominee who has Advocated for Ethnonationalism and Rolled Back Protections for Sexual Assault Survivors
WASHINGTON, DC—On the day before Steven Menashi’s hastily-scheduled confirmation hearing for the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, Demand Justice, CREDO Action, and Center for Popular Democracy Action delivered petitions from 110,000 people to the office of Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and urged her to lead the fight to oppose him.
President Donald Trump’s nomination of Menashi, an advocate of “ethnonationalism,” comes amid a rise in domestic terrorism incidents inspired by Trump’s racist rhetoric. Menashi, who is currently a White House lawyer, also participates in the Immigration Strategic Working Group led by Stephen Miller, the architect of the administration’s worst immigration policies including family separation, forced detention, and ending DACA. Prior to his time at the White House, Menashi was Acting General Counsel for Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and dismantled Obama-era protections for sexual assault survivors at schools across the country.
“Steven Menashi is not the kind of person this country needs on one of its second-most powerful courts. The Second Circuit will rule on cases about Trump’s racist immigration policies, obstruction of justice in the House’s impeachment investigations, and rollback of protections for victims of sexual violence in schools––all of which Menashi has had a hand in while working in the Trump administration,” said CREDO Action Co-director Heidi Hess. “Menashi is unfit to serve as a federal judge and unfit to serve at any level of government––the Senate should not confirm his nomination.”
“Steven Menashi has stripped protections for sexual assault survivors, advocated for ethnonationalism, and helped Trump and Stephen Miller with their anti-immigrant agenda,” said Demand Justice Chief Counsel Christopher Kang. “It’s not enough to simply oppose a nominee like this––Democrats must join us in sounding the alarm and not allowing Mitch McConnell and Lindsey Graham to push this nomination through under the radar.”
“Trump is trying to fill our federal courts with judges who will uphold his anti-Black, anti-Brown, anti-immigrant agenda,” said Jennifer Flynn Walker, Senior Director of Mobilization & Advocacy for CPD Action. “His nomination of Steven Menashi is another piece in that plan. We will not stand by while he seeks a lifetime appointment on the federal bench. We know we can’t trust the White House or the GOP, but we can lean on our champions in Congress––and we’re counting on them, now more than ever, to show us how hard they are fighting Menashi’s appointment and to expand a popular democracy for us all!”
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