Every day we learn about the multiple ways large corporations are destroying democracy in this country (or whatever is left of it). They are bribing politicians, poisoning our air and water, pushing for the passage of cookie-cutter legislation specifically designed to undermine workers' rights, constitutional rights, women's rights, and regulations against predatory practices.
When people object to the abuses and take legal action, more often than not, the judicial system ends up finding in favor of offending corporations in a host of issues.
Given this reality, it is truly alarming to learn that when it comes to judicial nominees of a Democratic president, "corporate attorneys outnumber all other kinds of attorneys by three to one," as reported by the Huffingon Post: "Elizabeth Warren To Obama: Stop Putting Forward So Many Corporate Judicial Nominees."
And incredibly, a new AFJ report ("Broadening the Bench") referenced in the article "found that just 3.6 percent of the president's nominees have a background in public interest organizations."
Speaking at an event hosted by Alliance for Justice, a left-leaning association of more than 100 groups focused on the judicial system, Warren said the federal bench is currently dominated by judges who previously worked for large firms representing corporate interests. She lamented that little has changed under Obama.
"We face a federal bench that has a striking lack of diversity," Warren said. "President Obama has supported some notable exceptions but ... the president's nominees have thus far been largely in line with the prior statistics."
~snip~
"Power is becoming more and more concentrated on one side," she said. "Professional diversity is one way to insulate the courts from corporate capture."
~snip~
"It matters that someone has represented people other than corporate clients," she said. "That they've had real experience with people who can't afford lawyers. That they've had real experience trying to fight for the public interest."
[The emphasis is mine]
I'm very glad the senator is addressing this issue in such a public manner. At least to me, a loyal Democrat who votes straight party line on every election, I'm dumbfounded as to why a Democratic president would appoint so many corporatist lawyers to the bench.
Note: I'm aware that Senator Warren has said that she will not run for president. But until we get a 2016 nominee (hopefully a non-corporatist progressive), I will have this up: WARREN FOR PRESIDENT 2016
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