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Home > Press Room Archives > 2005 > Press Release
Press Release
Statement by Hector Flores,
LULAC National President on Compromise Regarding Senate Rules
May 23, 2005
Washington, DC
– Last night’s decision by the U.S. Senate to
avert the impending “nuclear” disaster clears
the path for true dialogue for Democrats and
Republicans to begin seriously negotiating on
those matters which are currently of great
importance to the Latino community and the
American people such as the deficit, social
security and immigration reform. The 14
senators who forged a bi-partisan compromise
should be commended for bringing this impasse to
an end. The citizens of our country have tired
of political gridlock and want the country to
move forward.
LULAC is hopeful
that in choosing to uphold the rule of law and
the principle of playing by the rules, Senate
leaders can now get back to the important
business of governance and restore civility to
the Senate. LULAC strongly believes that the
nuclear option should never have been at the
table - not only because it would have changed
the Senate rules, but because it would have done
so by breaking the rules themselves, misusing
the power of the majority to force through
changes that do not have sufficient support to
pass under the existing rules of the Senate.
Had the nuclear
option been exercised, we feel that it would
have created a dangerous precedent for how the
Senate would be governed in the future. If the
filibuster option is eliminated for judicial
nominees, it would open the door to remove the
option for other important issues and diminished
our ability to protect civil and minority rights
against what our forefathers called the “tyranny
of the majority.”
Latinos
understand that the federal courts have played
an important role in promoting equality and
opportunity for all Americans, including Latino
Americans and immigrants. Even before Brown
v. Board of Education, federal courts in
Mendez v. Westminster rejected practices
that denied educational opportunity to Hispanic
students. Without an independent judiciary with
a commitment to uphold individual liberties and
the protection of the rights of minorities, the
future of civil rights in 21st
Century America would have been sorely
compromised.
LULAC is pleased
that a nuclear winter has been averted, however,
we remain concerned about some of the judicial
nominees pending before the Senate. Latinos have
made it clear that checks and balances are
critical to good government. We understand the
values of a strong and independent judicial
system and we believe judicial nominees should
be solidly in the mainstream, not outside of
it. LULAC looks forward to working with the
Senate as we enter this new phase of the
judicial decision-making process. We are
optimistic that we can now bring the judicial
nomination process back to one in which judicial
excellence not ideology guides our selections
for the courts.
The League of
United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) is the
oldest and largest Latino civil rights
organization in the United States. LULAC
advances the economic condition, educational
attainment, political influence, health, and
civil rights of Hispanic Americans through
community-based programs operating at more than
700 LULAC councils nationwide.
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