John Ashcroft’s record of extremism and lack of commitment to
equal justice under the law make him unfit to lead the Justice Department. (duh)• Ashcroft distorted the record of Missouri Supreme Court Judge Ronnie White and misled his Senate colleagues in order to sabotage White’s nomination to a federal district court. He accused Judge White of being “pro-criminal,” and “the most anti-death penalty judge on the Missouri Supreme Court,” and said his record was “outside the court’s mainstream.” In fact, Judge White had actually voted to uphold the imposition of the death penalty far more often than he had voted to reverse it. Indeed, according to published reports, three judges appointed by Ashcroft when he was Missouri Governor had voted to reverse death penalty sentences a greater percentage of the time than had Judge White.
• On the Senate floor, Ashcroft told his colleagues that law enforcement officials in Missouri had “decided to call our attention to Judge White’s record in the criminal law.” However, after the Senate rejected Judge White’s confirmation, the press reported that Senator Ashcroft had tried to orchestrate opposition to Judge White from law enforcement officials. The president of the Missouri Police Chiefs Association, Carl Wolf, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that Ashcroft’s office had asked him to work against the nomination. Wolf told the paper that he never thought of White as “pro-criminal” a label Ashcroft applied to White’s record. “I really have a hard time seeing that he’s against law enforcement,” Wolf said. “I’ve always known him to be an upright, fine individual and his voting record speaks for itself.” In fact, a number of Missouri law enforcement officials and organizations, including the Missouri State Lodge of the Fraternal Order of Police, wrote in support of Judge White.
• Ashcroft believes the Supreme Court should overturn Roe v. Wade. He has led attempts to amend the Constitution and pass legislation that would virtually eliminate women’s reproductive rights by banning abortions, even for rape and incest victims. The abortion ban he proposed was so extreme that it could have been invoked to outlaw widely accepted and commonly used birth control methods including the pill and IUDs. Ashcroft’s opposition to reproductive choice spurred him to lead battles opposing the nominations of Dr. Henry Foster and Dr. David Satcher to be Surgeon General.
• He embraces the Religious Right’s narrow view of the First Amendment, and has sought to undermine the separation of church and state, which protects all Americans’ religious liberty.
• He is the author and primary promoter of “charitable choice,” a campaign to turn federal dollars and social programs over to churches and religious organizations that would not have to comply with anti-discrimination requirements or other forms of public accountability.
• He supports vouchers to divert tax dollars from public schools to religious schools.
• He backs a constitutional amendment that would allow public schools to subject students to captive audience prayer.
• He supports limits on free speech over the Internet. He supported legislation, later held unconstitutional, that sought to censor communications over the Internet. And he supported legislation to require mandatory use of filtering on all computers used by schools and libraries receiving federal e-rate assistance.
• In 1996 then-Senator Ashcroft voted against the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which would have prohibited workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation. Ashcroft said he opposed ENDA because homosexuality “is clearly a choice a choice that can be made and unmade.” During the debate on ENDA he said, “I think this bill sends a signal that this is an elevated status. I do not think that is the right signal to send to the next generation.”
• Ashcroft supported a 1995 amendment to the reauthorization of the Ryan White Act introduced by Senator Jesse Helms to cut off funding to local gay community health centers that provide care to men, women and children with HIV/AIDS.
• Ashcroft and Senator Jesse Helms were the only two votes in committee against Senate confirmation of James Hormel, an openly gay philanthropist who was nominated by President Clinton to be U.S. Ambassador to Luxembourg. Ashcroft said of Hormel, “He has been a leader in promoting a lifestyle.…And the kind of leadership he’s exhibited there is likely to be offensive to … individuals in the setting to which he will be assigned.”
• As Missouri attorney general, Ashcroft opposed the Equal Rights Amendment. In 1982, he said part of his opposition to ERA had to do with his religious conviction that “homosexuality is abnormal and should be viewed as such and that it is a condition from which relief should be sought and not a condition that should be fostered by the society or -- I think that is good.” He sued the National Organization for Women for boycotting Missouri when the state would not ratify the ERA. He also opposed state-level legislation requiring equal pay for equal work.
• In 2000, Ashcroft voted against the Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which would have amended federal law to recognize hate crimes based on sexual orientation, gender and disability, and would have strengthened federal jurisdiction over hate crimes. He voted to weaken a federal law that helps protect minority communities against “redlining” by banks and other financial institutions.
• He is opposed to affirmative action and based on that opposition he helped block a Senate vote on the nomination of Bill Lann Lee as Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights.
• Ashcroft introduced legislation to undercut efforts to limit emissions of man-made greenhouse gases.
• Ashcroft voted to roll back clean water protections and prevent the EPA from enforcing
arsenic standards for drinking water.
• Ashcroft voted to allow chemical manufacturers to avoid compliance with community “right to know” laws so they would not have to report on emissions of some toxic pollution.
• Ashcroft voted to allow mining companies to dump cyanide and other mining waste on large areas of public lands next to mining sites.
• Ashcroft voted to make it easier for developers to seek to overturn local zoning laws in federal court.
• Ashcroft voted against additional funding for environmental programs including the Clean Water Action Plan and toxic waste cleanups at Superfund sites.
• In 1999, Ashcroft delivered the commencement address at and accepted an honorary degree from Bob Jones University, which is infamous for its racially discriminatory policies.
• In 1998, Ashcroft praised the magazine Southern Partisan, which has been a major forum for neo-Confederate views, including the recurring theme that slavery was beneficial to the slaves. Ashcroft praised the magazine for “help to set the record straight” against what he called “attacks the revisionists have brought against our founders.” He added, “I’ve got to do more. We’ve all got to stand up and speak in this respect, or else we’ll be taught that these people were giving their lives, subscribing their sacred fortunes and their honor to some perverted agenda.” Southern Partisan’s merchandising operation, the “Southern Partisan General Store,” has offered a T-shirt celebrating the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.• He cast the sole vote against a 1999 continuing resolution to keep the federal government open.
• In just six years in the Senate he introduced or sponsored no fewer than seven different attempted amendments to the Constitution. In 1996 he proposed a radical amendment that would have made it much easier to amend the Constitution, opening the way for disastrous political and ideological mischief.
• Ashcroft was ranked as one of the National Rifle Association’s most reliable votes in the Senate. The NRA reportedly spent close to $400,000 to support Ashcroft’s reelection campaign.
• Ashcroft was one of only 20 Senators to vote against an amendment to prohibit the sale or transfer of guns without safety locks.
• He voted against closing the gun show loophole, which allows criminals and juveniles easy access to guns.
• He opposed the federal assault weapons ban and voted against the ban on importation and sale of high-capacity ammunition magazines.
• In 1999, Ashcroft recorded radio ads urging Missouri voters to support an NRA-sponsored ballot initiative that would have allowed almost anyone including convicted child molesters and stalkers to carry concealed guns in Missouri.
• He voted to eliminate funding for the National Endowment for the Arts.
• As Missouri Attorney General and Governor, he was staunchly opposed to school desegregation ordered by federal courts in St. Louis and Kansas City, and even opposed a voluntary city-suburb desegregation plan in St. Louis.
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