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For Immediate Release: May 1, 2009
Contact: Adrienne Ammerman or Mary Robbins, 202-588-5180
NWLC APPLAUDS JUSTICE SOUTER FOR PROTECTING WOMEN’S RIGHTS
Urges President Obama to Nominate a Person Worthy of Filling His Shoes
(Washington, DC) Marcia Greenberger, Co-President of the National Women's Law Center (NWLC), thanked Justice Souter today for his many years of service on the Supreme Court. Her statement follows:
“In almost two decades on the Supreme Court, Justice David Souter has played a crucial role in many cases involving women’s legal rights, including upholding the constitutional guarantee of Equal Protection, statutory protections against sex discrimination in schools and in the workplace, the right to equal opportunity, and women’s right to abortion. Countless women across this country owe him a debt of gratitude.
“Every seat on the Supreme Court is of paramount importance to women. In the near future, the Supreme Court could consider challenges to some of the President’s important initiatives, including ensuring that job opportunities under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act are available to both women and men. It could also consider cases involving challenges to increasingly restrictive state abortion bans.
“It is absolutely critical to the women of this country that Justice Souter’s replacement has a strong commitment to upholding and enforcing their basic legal rights and protections.
“Given the number of highly qualified women – both on and off the bench – this appointment should be a woman. We have clearly moved past the days when one woman on the highest court in the land is sufficient.”
To view the NWLC fact sheet Justice Souter’s Important Role in Protecting Women’s Legal Rights, visit the website: http://www.nwlc.org/pdf/SouterRoleWomensRights.pdf.
To interview Marcia D. Greenberger, or for more about the National Women’s Law Center, contact Adrienne Ammerman at aammerman@nwlc.org or at 202-588-5180.
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