Today, the Biden administration announced a new group of nominees to the judiciary, including Ms. J. Michelle Childs for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and Ms. Nancy G. Abudu for the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.
In response, Sherrilyn Ifill, President and Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF), issued the following statement:
“We are pleased to see the Biden administration continuing its practice of nominating candidates from diverse backgrounds and experiences to the judiciary. In a multiracial and pluralist liberal democracy like the United States, it is essential that our public servants appreciate, first-hand, the complexities and nuances involved in ensuring justice for all. The nomination of two qualified and prepared Black women, each with diverse lawyering experience, to serve on the federal Circuit Courts is an important demonstration of the President’s commitment to diversifying and strengthening the federal bench.
“We are especially happy to see the nominations of Ms. Nancy G. Abudu to the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit and Ms. J. Michelle Childs to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Throughout her career as a civil rights attorney and voting rights expert, from her time as a Senior Staff Attorney at the ACLU to her tenure in leadership at the Southern Poverty Law Center, Abudu has demonstrated excellence as a lawyer, superb professionalism, and a commitment to justice and fairness.
“Ms. Childs, meanwhile, has most recently distinguished herself through her exemplary work as a judge on the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina and, before that, as a circuit judge in Columbia, South Carolina. Before entering the judiciary, Ms. Childs firmly established her expertise on labor and employment law through not only her work as an attorney but also as the Deputy Director of the Division of Labor with the South Carolina Department of Labor, Licensing, and Regulation, and her tenure as commissioner on the South Carolina Workers’ Compensation Commission.
“In addition to helping to restore integrity to the courts, we are confident that both of these eminently qualified and gifted nominees will serve with the same principled devotion to fairness, equality, and justice that has defined their respective careers. We urge the United States Senate to immediately consider and advance these gifted, principled, and unquestionably qualified nominees.”
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Founded in 1940, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) is the nation’s first civil and human rights law organization. LDF has been completely separate from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) since 1957—although LDF was originally founded by the NAACP and shares its commitment to equal rights. LDF’s Thurgood Marshall Institute is a multi-disciplinary and collaborative hub within LDF that launches targeted campaigns and undertakes innovative research to shape the civil rights narrative. In media attributions, please refer to us as the NAACP Legal Defense Fund or LDF. Follow LDF on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.