Liberal group's letter riddled with duplicate names amid 'thousands' opposing Amy Coney Barrett
By: Ryan Lovelace (The Washington Times)
Liberal judicial advocacy group Alliance for Justice sent a letter to the U.S. Senate with the names of thousands of lawyers purportedly opposing Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s Supreme Court appointment, but the letter includes more than 100 pages of duplicate names.
One of the duplicate names appears to be the late Patricia Whalen, who died in May 2020 before Judge Barrett was nominated and before the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died, according to an obituary published by a New York funeral home. Attempts to reach Ms. Whalen’s family on Saturday were unsuccessful.
Asked about the late Ms. Whalen’s inclusion and duplicate names on the list, AFJ spokesperson Zack Ford referred questions to a public relations firm representing a partner organization, the Lawyers for Good Government.
“I’m pretty sure the count is accurate,” Mr. Ford said on Saturday of the number of names included on the list.
After publication, Mr. Ford said AFJ is correcting errors in the letter to ensure the number of lawyers counted is accurate. Mr. Ford said “as far as we can tell” that AFJ believes that there is a living judge matching Ms. Whalen’s description based upon a signature that the group received.
AFJ partnered with Lawyers for Good Government, a left-leaning human rights advocacy group, to gather signatures for the letter and submit it to the Senate. Unbendable Media, a progressive media relations firm, first sent the letter to reporters on Friday but did not share the signatories.
Before identifying the names of the signatories, Unbendable Media and AFJ sent press releases on Friday to reporters touting the letter as “the largest known lawyer opposition letter to a Supreme Court nominee.”
On Saturday, an updated press release was sent to reporters with a 394-page letter that said it had been signed by 6,056 “members of the legal profession,”including more than 5,000 lawyers and 14 judges.
Whalen, a former international judge of the War Crimes Chamber at the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, was identified twice. An obituary posted by a New York funeral home said Whalen died May 23, 2020.
Another judge identified twice on the list, David Gronbach of Connecticut, is running as a Democrat for a seat in the Connecticut state legislature.
In a statement accompanying the list of legal professionals rallying against Judge Barrett’s appointment on Saturday, AFJ president Nan Aron said the show of opposition was “no doubt the tip of the iceberg.”
“It is virtually unprecedented for thousands of lawyers, from every state and a breadth of backgrounds, to unite in opposition to a Supreme Court nominee,” Ms. Aron said. “As people who have devoted their careers to the pursuit of justice and upholding our Constitution, they have made clear that a vote to confirm Amy Coney Barrett is a vote to strip away health care protections from millions, eviscerate protections for those with preexisting conditions, overturn Roe, and dismantle civil rights.”
Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on Judge Barrett’s nomination to the Supreme Court begin on Tuesday. Liberal opposition to Judge Barrett’s nomination revolves around concerns that a 6-3 majority of Republican-appointed justices at the Supreme Court would have the ability to thwart Democrats’ policy agenda for many years to come.
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