POSSIBLE CHANGE in Democratic Witness List For Hearings
On Supreme Court Nominee John Roberts Jr.
WASHINGTON (Wednesday,
Sept. 14) – Democratic members of the Senate Judiciary Committee
announced on Wednesday a potential change in their witness list for
the hearings on Supreme Court nominee John Roberts Jr to be Chief
Justice of the United States.
Due to a scheduling
conflict, former White House Counsel John Dean will be unable to
testify on Thursday if the panel he is scheduled to serve on is
called before the committee. The committee is expected to begin the
first panel of outside witnesses Thursday afternoon; Dean is listed
on the fifth panel to appear before the committee. Georgetown
University Law Professor Peter Edelman will appear in Dean’s place
on Thursday if the panel is called. If the hearings continue into
Friday, Dean will resume his slot on the panel.
Below is Professor
Edelman's biography followed by the remaining list of Democratic
witnesses, consisting of national leaders, legal scholars and
courageous Americans who represent many of the vital issues facing
the nation today, including civil rights, women’s and disability
rights, Americans’ right to privacy, and the importance of an open
government that serves the interests of the American people.
Peter B. Edelman, Professor of Law; Co-Director, Joint Degree in Law
and Public Policy, Georgetown University Law Center
Professor Edelman has been on the faculty at Georgetown University
Law Center since 1982, where he specializes in poverty, welfare,
juvenile justice, and constitutional law. Professor Edelman served
as Counselor to Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala
and then as Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation during
President Clinton’s first term.
Professor Edelman has been Associate Dean of the Law Center,
Director of the New York State Division for Youth, and Vice
President of the University of Massachusetts. He was a Legislative
Assistant to Senator Robert F. Kennedy and was Issues Director for
Senator Edward Kennedy's Presidential campaign in 1980. He served as
a law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Arthur J. Goldberg and before
that to Judge Henry J. Friendly on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the
Second Circuit. He also worked in the U.S. Department of Justice as
Special Assistant to Assistant Attorney General John Douglas.
* * * * *
(Witnesses listed alphabetically)
Carol Browner,
Former Administrator, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA),
1993-2001
Carol Browner is the longest serving administrator in the history of
the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). She received the
appointment from President Bill Clinton in January 1993, and was
unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate. During her tenure, she
partnered with business leaders, community advocates, and all levels
of government heads to promote common sense, cost-effective
solutions to the nation's most pressing environmental and public
health challenges. She successfully built broad bipartisan support
in Congress to pass two pivotal modern environmental laws - the
landmark Food Quality Protection Act and the Safe Drinking Water
Act. Browner knows environmental regulation both from the
Washington and state perspective. From 1991 to 1993, Browner was
Secretary of Florida's Department of Environmental Regulation, one
of the nation's largest state environmental agencies. She won praise
for dealing effectively with difficult issues involving wetland
protection, hazardous waste disposal, and Everglades cleanup.
Browner is currently a partner at The Albright Group in Washington,
DC.
John Dean, Former
White House Counsel (SCHEDULE PERMITTING)
Before becoming Counsel to the President of the United States in
July 1970 at 31, John Dean was the Chief Minority Counsel to the
Committee on the Judiciary of the United States House of
Representatives, the Associate Director of the National Commission
on Reform of the Federal Criminal Laws, and an Associate Deputy
Attorney General of the United States. He served as Richard Nixon's
White House lawyer for 1,000 days. This, in turn, lead to his
becoming the key witness before the Senate Select Committee
Presidential Campaign Activities (the Senate Watergate Committee),
as well as a lead witness for the government in the principal
prosecutions undertaken by the Watergate Special Prosecution Force.
After recently retiring from a successful career as a private
investment banker (mergers and acquisitions), Dean returned to
writing and lecturing. Since November 2000, he has written a
regular column on law and politics for the on-line site FindLaw and
currently he is at work on his seventh book. For the past three
years John Dean has also been a visiting scholar at the Annenberg
School of Communications at the University of Southern California.
Marcia
Greenberger, President, National Women’s Law Center
Marcia Greenberger is the founder and Co-President of the National
Women’s Law Center. The creation of the Center 30 years ago
established her as the first full-time women’s rights legal advocate
in Washington, DC. A recognized expert on gender discrimination and
the law, Greenberger has participated in the development of key
legislative initiatives and litigation protecting women’s rights.
Wade Henderson,
Executive Director, Leadership Conference on Civil Rights
The Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR) is the nation’s
premier civil and human rights coalition. Established in 1950, the
LCCR was created to promote the passage and implementing of civil
rights laws designed to end discrimination and achieve equal
opportunity for all Americans. The LCCR — which includes over 180
national organizations — has coordinated the national legislative
campaign on behalf of every major civil rights law since 1957. Mr.
Henderson is well known for his expertise on a wide range of civil
rights, civil liberties and human rights issues. Prior to his role
with the LCCR, Mr. Henderson was the Washington Bureau Director of
the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
(NAACP).
Coach Roderick
Jackson, Birmingham, Ala.
Roderick Jackson is a teacher and the Acting Head Coach of the
girls’ basketball team at Ensley High School in Birmingham, Ala.
After complaining to school officials about the tremendous disparity
in resources and treatment between the girls’ and boys’ basketball
teams, Coach Jackson was fired. Coach Jackson went to court to get
his job back, and appealed all the way to the Supreme Court. In
March, 2005, the Supreme Court decided the case in Coach Jackson’s
favor. In a 5-4 decision in which Justice O’Connor wrote the
majority opinion, the Court ruled that an individual can sue under
Title IX to challenge retaliation against him or her for protesting
sex discrimination. In its decision, the Court recognized that
prohibiting retaliation is essential if Title IX — or any broad
anti-discrimination law — is to provide effective protection against
discrimination, and stated that the Title IX enforcement scheme
would “unravel” if Jackson were not allowed to proceed.
Beverly Jones,
Lafayette, Tenn.
Beverly Jones — a plaintiff in Tennessee vs. Lane and Jones
— lost the use of her legs and uses a wheelchair as a result of an
accident. Jones, a court reporter, sued under the Americans With
Disabilities Act for equal access for people with disabilities to
the courthouses in Tennessee. In a 5-4 decision, with Justice
O’Connor casting the deciding vote, the Supreme Court upheld Title
II of the Americans with Disabilities Act, ensuring that Jones and
other persons with disabilities have equal opportunities in our
society.
Judge Nathaniel Jones, 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Retired
Judge Nathaniel Jones, one of the nation’s most prominent African
American judges and a longtime civil rights advocate, served on the
6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals from 1979 to 2002. Prior to his
appointment to the court, Judge Jones served as general counsel of
the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People,
where he directed the national response to attacks against
affirmative action, led an inquiry into discrimination against black
service men in the military and supervised the NAACP’s defense in
the Mississippi boycott case that led to the landmark Supreme Court
decision that gave individuals and organizations the right to engage
in protests under the First Amendment. Judge Jones also served as
assistant general counsel to President Lyndon Johnson’s National
Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders (Kerner Commission) which
studied the causes of urban riots in the 1960s. Today, Judge Jones
is a senior partner at Blank Rome LLP in Cincinnati, OH.
Congressman John
Lewis, (D-Ga.)
Congressman Lewis is often called “one of the most courageous
persons the Civil Rights Movement ever produced.” During the
height of the civil rights movement — from 1963 to 1966 — Lewis was
named Chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee,
which was largely responsible for organizing student activism toward
equal rights. After being named one of the Big Six leaders of the
Civil Rights Movement, Lewis organized voter registration drives and
community action programs during the Mississippi Freedom Summer, and
helped spearhead the historic march over the Edmund Pettus Bridge in
Selma, Ala. in 1965, which helped expedite the passage of the Voting
Rights Act that same year. After holding a number of elected and
appointed positions, Congressman Lewis was elected to Congress in
1986, where he has continued his fight for equal rights.
Karen Pearl,
Interim President, Planned Parenthood
Karen Pearl has 30 years of experience in education and non-profit
management as well as a background in counseling and health care.
Throughout her career, Pearl has worked to preserve women’s rights
and advocated for better access to health care for women. In her
role with Planned Parenthood she has strived to create more
opportunity for those most in need. As head of the Planned
Parenthood of Nassau County, Pearl oversaw the addition of primary
care services and the opening of a new health center. Pearl began
her career as a preschool teacher, working with children with
disabilities.
Robert Reich,
Former Labor Secretary, Professor, Brandeis University
Robert Reich is
Professor of Social and Economic Policy at Brandeis University and
at Brandeis’s Heller School of Social Policy and Management. He has
served in three national administrations, most recently as secretary
of labor under President Bill Clinton. As the nation’s 22nd
Secretary of Labor, Reich presided over the implementation of the
Family and Medical Leave Act; led a national fight against
sweatshops in the U.S. and illegal child labor around the world;
headed the administration’s successful effort to raise the minimum
wage; secured worker’s pensions, and launched job-training programs,
one-stop career centers, and school-to-work initiatives. Under his
leadership, the Department of Labor earned more than 30 awards for
innovation and government reinvention. He was awarded the
prestigious Vaclav Havel Vision Foundation Prize, by the former
Czech president, for his pioneering work in economic and social
thought. A 1996 poll of cabinet experts conducted by the Hearst
newspapers rated him the most effective cabinet secretary during the
Clinton administration. Before taking office, Reich was a member of
the faculty of Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. He
received his B.A. from Dartmouth College, his M.A. from Oxford
University where he was a Rhodes Scholar, and his J.D. from Yale Law
School.
Judith Resnik,
Professor of Law, Yale Law School
Judith Resnik
teaches procedure, feminist theory, federal courts, and large-scale
litigation at Yale Law School. Professor Resnik is a co-chair of
the Women's Faculty Forum, a university-wide group aimed at
fostering scholarship about gender and community for women at Yale.
She was a member of the Ninth Circuit Gender Bias Task Force, the
first to report on the effects of gender in the federal court
system. She is a co-author of its monograph, ‘The Effects of
Gender.’ Prior to joining Yale, she was the Orrin B. Evans
Professor of Law at the University of Southern California Law
Center. Professor Resnik has testified many times before
congressional and judicial committees, most recently before the
subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee regarding the
Senate’s role in the nomination process and before a committee of
the United States Judiciary on revisions to the class action rules.
She has also been a visiting professor at NYU, Harvard, and the
University of Chicago Law Schools. Professor Resnik is a graduate of
Bryn Mawr College and New York University School of Law.
David Strauss,
Professor of Law, University of Chicago Law School
David Strauss
teaches constitutional law, federal jurisdiction, and elements of
the law. Professor Strauss is a former special counsel to the Senate
Judiciary Committee, where he worked during the committee’s
consideration of the nomination of David Souter to the Supreme
Court. Before joining the faculty, Strauss worked as an
Attorney-Adviser in the Office of Legal Counsel of the U.S.
Department of Justice and as an Assistant to the Solicitor General
of the United States. Professor Strauss has argued 18 cases before
the United States Supreme Court. He has served as a member of the
Board of Governors of the Chicago Council of Lawyers and is
currently chair of the Board of Directors of the Laboratory Schools.
Mr. Strauss is, with Geoffrey Stone and Dennis Hutchinson, editor of
the Supreme Court Review. He has published articles on a variety of
subjects, principally in constitutional law. He graduated from
Harvard College summa cum laude in 1973.
Anne Marie Tallman, President and General Counsel, Mexican
American Legal Defense and Education Fund
A granddaughter of Mexican migrant workers and the first in her
family to attend college, Anne Marie Tallman was elected President
and General Counsel of the Mexican American Legal Defense and
Education Fund (MALDEF) in 2004, after serving as an executive with
the mortgage lending company Fannie Mae. MALDEF’s mission is to
protect and promote the civil rights of the 40 million Latinos
living in the United States. Tallman also served as the president
and CEO of the non-profit Fannie Mae Foundation in Washington.
While in this position, she launched the Hispanic Heritage Award
Foundation’s Youth Awards, which in just six years awarded $1.1
million in scholarships to more than 400 students in 12 cities.
Before joining Fannie Mae, Tallman was Deputy Director for both the
City and County of Denver, in charge of the Planning and Community
Development Agency. There, she advised Mayor Webb on housing and
community development issues impacting Latino and African-American
communities.
Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite, Ph.D., Professor of Theology &
President, Chicago Theological Seminary
Susan Brooks Thistlewaite, Ph.D. currently serves as the 11th
President of the Chicago Theological Seminary. She was professor of
theology at CTS for 16 years, director of the Ph.D. center for five
years; has a Ph.D. from Duke University, a Master of Divinity (Summa
Cum Laude) from Duke Divinity School and a B.A. from Smith College.
Chicago Theological Seminary, a seminary of the United Church of
Christ, serves Christ and the churches and the wider faith community
by preparing women and men in the understandings and skills needed
for religious leadership and ministry to individuals, churches and
society. Dr. Thistlewaite has authored numerous writings and sermons
on religion and society. An ordained minister of the United Church
of Christ since 1974, she is the author or editor of 10 books and
has been a translator for two different translations of the Bible.
Her works include one of the most widely used textbooks in the U.S.
to teach theology, the 10th anniversary edition of Lift Every Voice:
Constructing Christian Theologies from the Underside.
Reginald Turner, President, National Bar Association
Reginald Turner was sworn in as the 63rd President of the National
Bar Association (NBA) on Aug. 5, 2005. Turner has more than 15
years of experience in labor and employment law and governmental
relations, is Past President of the State Bar of Michigan and a
Fellow of the American Bar Foundation — an honor reserved to less
than 1 percent of lawyers in each state. Turner often engages in
pro bono representation in important civil rights and civil
liberties cases. He was one of the lead counsels in the affirmative
action case in involving the University of Michigan where he
represented a coalition of civil rights organizations known as
Citizens for Affirmative Action’s Preservation, and 17 African
American and Latino students. The NBA is the largest and oldest
organization of attorneys and judges of color in the world. Founded
in 1925, the NBA represents over 18,000 lawyers, judges, educators
and law students.
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