Washington, D.C., April 19, 2018 – Alliance for Justice today released its comprehensive report on the record of Andrew Oldham, Donald Trump’s nominee for a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. AFJ President Nan Aron released the following statement:
“Andrew Oldham’s record paints a clear picture of him as the consummate axe man, devoted to tearing down every structure our society has put in place to protect public health and safety and the rights of everyday people. His destructive vision could cause serious harm to the environment, to consumers, workers, women, immigrants, and people of color if he were appointed to a lifetime seat on the federal bench. We strongly oppose his confirmation.”
Among other things, AFJ’s report finds that:
- Oldham has been closely associated with the creation of the radical “Texas Plan” proposal to overhaul the U. S. Constitution and gut the enforcement of modern consumer, public health, and workplace protections.
- Oldham helped Texas sue to block the EEOC’s efforts to “Ban the Box” in hiring, assisted in gutting the Voting Rights Act in Shelby County v. Holder, advocated for Texas’s controversial voter ID law, and fought fair housing protections for communities of color.
- Oldham repeatedly represented Texas when it joined then-Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt in suing the EPA and undermining efforts to address climate change. Oldham also questioned the legitimacy of the EPA itself.
- Oldham was the architect of Texas’s strategy to block the expansion of DACA to additional Dreamers and parents of U.S citizens or green card holders, across the country.
- Oldham defended Texas’s extreme anti-abortion TRAP law, HB2, which the U.S. Supreme Court ultimately declared unconstitutional in Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt.
- Texas Governor Greg Abbott praised Oldham’s nomination as “an excellent choice of a strict construction constitutionalist. I think he’s even better than Gorsuch.”