Washington, D.C. – As the Senate considers David Porter for a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals, U.S. Senator Bob Casey (D-PA) released the following statement:
“David Porter has no judicial experience so one of the only ways to assess his fitness for the second highest court in the nation, the U.S. Court of Appeals, is through his writings. His published works reveal an ideology that will serve only the wealthy and powerful as opposed to protecting the rights of all Americans. Mr. Porter has argued against the Constitution’s Commerce Clause, which has guaranteed civil rights protections to millions of Americans. He has also praised a ruling that sought to overturn portions of the Violence Against Women Act. Our courts must be guardians of civil rights, of our values and of basic protections for workers.
My bipartisan work to recommend highly qualified individuals to the federal bench, both Republicans and Democrats, including five individuals nominated to the District Court in Pennsylvania by this Administration, is second to none. I have worked in good faith to move forward mainstream nominees whose judicial philosophy I disagreed with, including this Administration’s nominee for a Third Circuit seat in Philadelphia.
Instead of working in a bipartisan fashion to put mainstream individuals on the bench, this Administration and the Senate Majority Leader are demanding that the Senate confirm judicial nominees who advocate a hard-right ideology to appease their corporate donors. As a Senator representing more than 12 million Pennsylvanians, I refuse to be a rubber stamp for the extreme right. Mr. Porter has spent his career advocating an ideology that puts special interests, big corporations and those at the top ahead of Pennsylvania families. I urge my colleagues to reject this nomination.”
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