Statement by NOW President Toni Van Pelt:

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Mitch McConnell likes to run his do-nothing Senate at a turtle’s pace, but there’s one thing that makes him run like a rabbit—confirming federal judges.  The worse the nominee, the faster he acts. 

Steven Menashi, a legal aide to Donald Trump with an appalling record of inflammatory rhetoric, and hostile views towards women, communities of color and LGBTQIA+ Americans, is the worst of the worst.  

Donald Trump nominated Menashi to a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit once held by Thurgood Marshall. But instead of advancing equality and justice, Menashi is a picture of intolerance, bigotry and misogyny. He regularly engages in hate speech and is unfit to serve on the federal bench. 

While a student at Dartmouth and editor of the notoriously right-wing Dartmouth Review he defended a fraternity “ghetto party” as “harmless and unimportant.” 

He also used his platform to attack “gynocentrists” participating in Take Back the Night marches, compare race data collection in college admissions to Hitler’s Germany, and oppose the “radical abortion rights advocated by campus feminists and codified in Roe v. Wade.” 

As part of Trump’s administration, Menashi has rescinded protections for students of color, sexual assault survivors, and victims of fraudulent for-profit colleges, and advocated for Stephen Miller’s horrific immigration policy.  

In order to short-circuit opposition to this nomination, Mitch McConnell kept details of today’s Judiciary Committee hearing a secret until the last minute.   

But we will not be silenced.  NOW calls on the Senate Judiciary Committee to defeat Steven Menashi’s nomination and reject this sneak attack on justice, fairness and equity. 

Contact

Kimberly Hayes, Press Secretary, press@now.org, 202-570-4745