National Women's Law Center

For Immediate Release: Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Contact: Ranit Schmelzer or Mary Robbins, 202-588-5180

NWLC URGES HOLDER CONFIRMATION
Joins Senators, Civil Rights Leaders in Capitol Hill News Conference

(Washington, DC) Marcia Greenberger, Co-President, of the National Women's Law Center, joined Senators Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Benjamin Cardin (D-MD), and civil rights leaders at a news conference to urge confirmation of Eric Holder for U.S. Attorney General. Her statement follows.

“The National Women’s Law Center strongly supports the nomination of Eric Holder for Attorney General of the United States. Mr. Holder’s background and demonstrated commitment to equal justice and to the enforcement of our nation’s core constitutional and legal protections make him the right person for this key position, and having the right person at the Department of Justice has never been more important.

“Mr. Holder is eminently qualified for this position: he is a former United States Attorney, judge, and Deputy Attorney General. And as an attorney in the Department of Justice’s Public Integrity Section and as Deputy Attorney General, he repeatedly demonstrated the wisdom, judgment, breadth of legal experience and independence to be a superb Attorney General.

“Today, I want to highlight how, throughout his career, Mr. Holder has worked to advance legal rights and protections crucial to the women of this country. He has a strong record with regard to combating violence against women, protecting victims of bias-motivated crimes targeting gender or sexual orientation, enforcing civil rights protections, and increasing diversity in the legal profession.

“For example, as the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, Mr. Holder made combating domestic violence a priority. Among other initiatives, he created a Domestic Violence Unit and staffed the unit with specially trained prosecutors to combat this pervasive problem.

“As Deputy Attorney General, Mr. Holder distinguished himself both by broadening the base of lawyers available to serve the public interest, and by ensuring that the public interest was indeed served.

“He played an instrumental role in an initiative that resulted in the formation of a nonprofit organization, Lawyers for One America, designed to increase diversity within the legal profession and provide civil pro bono legal services to underserved communities. He has spoken and written on innumerable occasions about the importance of increasing racial and gender diversity in the profession. This diversity is not only essential for all of the young men and women in our country who have the skills and determination to become lawyers but to the quality of legal services that they can provide to the people in their diverse communities. Our system of justice is stronger and fairer because of Mr. Holder’s efforts in this regard.

“And as I saw first-hand, as Deputy Attorney General Mr. Holder worked to ensure that our nation’s laws designed to promote fairness and equality were enforced. He supported sorely needed legislation that would qualify bias-motivated crimes committed on the basis of gender and sexual orientation for enhanced penalties under federal hate crimes laws. And he supported strong stands taken in key cases involving Title VII, Title IX, the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, the Violence Against Women Act, among other statutory and constitutional protections that women depend on for access to jobs, to education, to adequate health care and to an equal place in our society.

“Mr. Holder’s nomination could not come at a more crucial time. Over the past eight years the Department of Justice has failed to fulfill its mission of protecting and enforcing the legal rights of all Americans, and women and their families have suffered mightily as a result. It has been politicized and the excellence of the career attorney ranks has been tested and undermined.

The Department filed dramatically fewer employment discrimination cases under the Bush Administration than under the previous administration. That means fewer jobs, lower paychecks and more suffering and struggle for women who were discriminated against at work as well as their families.
It took positions in Supreme Court cases that cut back on women’s pension rights and ability to secure justice for the equal pay and other discrimination they suffered –cases like Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire, and AT&T v. Hulteen, that simply upended settled law and longstanding government interpretations.
It has failed to provide the Task Force on Violence Against Health Care Providers with the staffing or institutional support needed to effectively prevent, or respond to, continuing violence against reproductive health care clinics.
It was instrumental in the decision of the Small Business Administration to issue regulations that gut the Women’s Procurement Program, a federally authorized program designed to enable women-owned small businesses to receive a fair share of federal contracting opportunities.

“It is crucial to confirm as Attorney General an individual who will restore the Department’s ability to fully enforce the vital rights and legal protections so important to all Americans, and most especially to women, and who will make the enforcement of those rights a priority of the Department of Justice.

“Mr. Holder is such an individual. The National Women’s Law Center, and our coalition partners, urge the Senate to swiftly confirm Mr. Holder so that he can begin the urgent work of revitalizing and restoring the Department of Justice.”

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