SEIU’s Henry: Biden’s judicial nominees would create a more just society for working people

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

San Francisco, Calif. - Service Employees International Union (SEIU) International President Mary Kay Henry issued the following statement on President Biden’s announcement of 11 judicial nominees today: 

“SEIU members care deeply about the courts and judicial nominations because we need fair-minded judges in order to win a more just society where all working people are respected, protected and paid. Judges make decisions about whether people have a meaningful right to join together in a union, to fair pay and safe working conditions, to meaningful voting rights, to access to affordable healthcare, and to protections against discrimination, harassment and violence on the job and in their neighborhoods. 

“President Biden is rightly making the courts a priority by moving quickly to nominate a slate of 11 diverse jurists to serve as judges. More people will see themselves reflected in our judicial system because this slate includes three Black women nominated to federal Circuit Courts of Appeals, including Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the D.C. Circuit and Candace Jackson-Akiwumi to the 7th Circuit, which has had no Black judges for the last four years; and nominees who would be the first Muslim federal judge, the first Asian-American woman to serve on the District Court for the District of Columbia, and the first woman of color to serve on the District Court of Maryland. Several of these nominees have backgrounds as public defenders or civil rights attorneys, a key to building a judiciary that understands the lives of working people.

“We look forward to seeing continued judicial nominations representing diverse communities and even more professional diversity in President Biden’s future judicial nominees. Judges who have spent their careers representing working people and their communities bring a deep understanding about how the law impacts real peoples’ lives. The perspective of union lawyers and civil rights lawyers is woefully underrepresented and much needed in our federal courts.”