(Washington, DC)— Congresswoman Diane E. Watson (CA-33rd) released the following statement in opposition to yesterday’s Senate vote that confirmed Judge Janice Rogers Brown to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals:

“The Senate vote confirming Judge Janice Rogers Brown to the D.C. Court of Appeals is wholly unacceptable because of her record of extreme legal jurisprudence and her opposition to racial and ethnic discrimination.  Judge Brown spent most of her seven years on the California Supreme Court undermining the laws protecting civil rights.  Her undisguised hostility to the Voting Rights Act, the Civil Rights Act, and other long and well established civil rights laws makes her particularly unsuitable for the D.C. Court of Appeals where many federal civil rights cases are referred.

“Despite her Senate confirmation, the opposition to Judge Brown is unprecedented.  California’s two Senators, Barbara Boxer and Daine Feinsten, opposed Justice Brown nomination. As Senate Judiciary Committee Member Patrick Leahy of Vermont noted: “This may be the first such Senate conformation over the opposition of both home-state Senators in the history of the United States Senate.”

“The Congressional Black and Hispanic Caucuses unanimously opposed Ms. Brown’s nomination. In addition, the nation’s civil rights community, including the NAACP, Urban League, and the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, all stood in strong opposition to Judge Brown’s confirmation.

“Anyway you cut it, Judge Brown is an extremist in her interpretation of the law.  She has such an atrocious civil rights record that she will make Clarence Thomas look like a Thurgood Marshall in comparison.”