May 20, 2003
The Honorable Max Baucus
514 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Dear Senator Baucus:
I'm writing to oppose the nomination of Judge Carolyn B. Kuhl to the United States Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Throughout her career, Judge Kuhl has demonstrated her strong and outright hostility to Roe v. Wade's protections for women to make decisions about their private lives without government intervention. Confirming Judge Kuhl to the Ninth Circuit would further jeopardize the ability of women and their families in Montana, and around the nation, to make their own private, personal reproductive health care decisions.
Though reproductive rights have not come before her as a judge, Kuhl issued a startling decision in an invasion of privacy lawsuit involving a medical setting, which, as the director of a medical clinic I find particularly disturbing. In Sanchez-Scott v. Alza Pharmaceuticals, Judge Kuhl dismissed a breast cancer patient's claim of invasion of privacy when a doctor brought a pharmaceutical sales representative with him into the examining room during the patient's breast exam. The plaintiff was led to believe that the sales representative was a medical colleague of the doctor. When she found out that he was a "drug salesman" from the doctor's receptionist, she became extremely upset, crying from shame and anger. On appeal, the appellate court reversed Kuhl's decision, finding the behavior to be a serious invasion of the patient's privacy. Her faulty reasoning in this case raises concern about how she might analyze other cases dealing with medical privacy, especially in the area of reproductive health care, given her stated hostility toward reproductive rights.
Senator Baucus, as you well know, this type of reasoning goes against the grain and values, which your constituents here in Montana value highly, especially a citizen's right to privacy, which we both know is a dearly held Montana value.
Additionally, to permit an anti-choice nominee like Carolyn Kuhl to assume a life-time appointment to the federal bench virtually assures another vote on the courts against a woman's right to choose. I applaud and deeply appreciate your 100% voting record in support of women's reproductive choice. I encourage your continued commitment and leadership in opposing Judge Kuhl's nomination and in supporting a filibuster on her vote. Please, do not let this extremist judicial activist preside over Montana's federal district court. Her hostility towards women's rights means there should be no seat for her on the Ninth Circuit.
Sincerely,
Raquel Castellanos Miller
Executive Director
Blue Mountain Clinic
Missoula, MT
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