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National Council
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Action Alert

June 7, 2005

Take Action to Protect the ADA by Telling Your Senators to Vote No on Pryor and Boyle

Time Sensitive: Act ASAP

We have only a few days to act to protect the rights of persons with disabilities in two federal circuit courts of appeals from efforts to give lifetime judicial appointments to two outspoken opponents of disability rights: Alabama Attorney General William (Bill) Pryor to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals and Judge Terrence Boyle to the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals. Make no mistake, these two nominees pose serious threats to the civil rights of persons with disabilities! We need to make every reasonable effort to convince reasonable Senators to reject these nominations.

The recent compromise deal negotiated by 14 Senators- 7 Democrats and 7 Republicans - made our task much more difficult. Pryor was guaranteed an up-or-down vote by the full Senate. The final vote on Pryor's confirmation is scheduled for the afternoon of Thursday, June 9th. We also need to be prepared to defeat Boyle on an up-or-down vote as soon as the week of June 13. The task is not easy, but we can't afford to be silent! To defeat Pryor or Boyle on an up-or-down vote, we must persuade at least six Republicans to vote "NAY" and make certain that moderate Democrats firmly oppose these nominations. At its core, our message is that votes for Pryor or Boyle will be seen as votes against the rights of people with disabilities and the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Background information on both Pryor and Boyle is attached to this alert.

Take Action:

  1. Sign on to the list of organizations opposing Pryor and Boyle: It is vital that we demonstrate as much disability community opposition to these nominees as possible. Please find attached a list of groups already opposed to these nominees. We would strongly encourage your organization to sign on to a list of organizations opposed to these nominees. Outreach to other disability advocacy organizations in a cross-disability manner is strongly encouraged.
  2. E-mail all signons to NCIL's intern at amy@ncil.org by Close of Business (COB) Wednesday June 8, 2005. We hope that the opposition list will represent the diversity of our community, including the IL, blind, deaf, developmental disability, epilepsy, diabetes and psychiatric survivor communities. Please copy signons to NCIL Policy Analyst Daniel Davis at daniel@ncil.org.
  3. Call, e-mail or FAX letters voicing your opposition to the Pryor and Boyle nominations to your Senators. This is especially true if Gordon Smith (R-OR), Chuck Hagel (R-NE) or one or more of the 14 Senators who agreed to the judicial nominations compromise represents your state.
  4. Arrange meetings with your Senators' offices to discuss your opposition to these nominations. Do this only for any of the sixteen Senators listed below that represent you.

Key Senators to Contact:

  • REPUBLICANS:
    • John McCain (AZ), John Warner (VA), Mike DeWine (OH), Olympia Snowe (ME), Susan Collins (ME), Lincoln Chafee (RI) and Lindsay Graham (SC). Also, Gordon Smith (OR) and Chuck Hagel (NE).

  • DEMOCRATS:
    • Robert Byrd (WV), Joseph Lieberman (CT), Ben Nelson (NE), Ken Salazar (CO), Daniel Inouye (HI), Mark Pryor (AR) and Mary Landrieu (LA)
 
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