Key Vote NO on the Nomination of Vanita Gupta for Associate Attorney General

On behalf of FreedomWorks’ activist community, I urge you to contact your senators and ask them to vote NO on the nomination of Vanita Gupta for Associate Attorney General at the Department of Justice (DOJ).

Unlike Attorney General Merrick Garland and Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, Vanita Gupta did not receive bipartisan support in the Senate Judiciary Committee. Vanita Gupta has an extremely political record that will present challenges within the Department of Justice. On numerous occasions, Vanita Gupta has attacked school choice, conservative judicial nominees, and the American rule of law.

While Vanita Gupta led the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division under the Obama administration, Vanita Gupta launched an attack against a Louisiana school choice program that supported African American children and their families. During her confirmation hearing, Senator Cruz (R-TX) cogently showcased Ms. Gupta’s anti-school choice effort by stating:

“Your tenure at the Department of Justice demonstrated a radical hostility to school choice, such as [when] the Department of Justice intervened in a case trying to kill a Louisiana school choice program there, even though many African American parents strongly supported the program.

The Black Alliance for Educational Options was fighting on the other side. The federal court at issue there specifically reprimanded the Department of Justice under your leadership for “ineffective lawyering”—that’s a quote—and for attempting to “circumvent the ordinary litigation process in order to regulate the school choice program without any legal judgment against the state.”

Additionally, Vanita Gupta viciously and unjustly attacked many of President Trump’s Article 3 nominees. Particularly, she sought to discredit and launch baseless attacks against Supreme Court nominees Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett. Vanita Gupta said that Justice Gorsuch is “dangerous and consequential;” Ms. Gupta said she couldn’t “underscore how dangerous it will be to have Judge Brett Kavanaugh on the Court, a man who harbors such bias, rage, fury, and is so easily unhinged.” Additionally, she called Amy Coney Barrett’s constitutional confirmation process “illegitimate.”

Her vicious partisan record should automatically disqualify her from holding a top post at the Department of Justice. Over the past decade, we have seen the Department of Justice increase its political appetite to attack conservatives and those who oppose any of its efforts that infringed on Americans’ civil liberties. Should Vanita Gupta be confirmed, the politicization of the Department of Justice will surely continue.

FreedomWorks will count the vote on the nomination of Vanita Gupta for Associate Attorney General on our 2021 Congressional Scorecard and reserves the right to score any amendments, motions, or other related votes. The scorecard is used to determine eligibility for the FreedomFighter Award, which recognizes Members of the House and Senate who consistently vote to support economic freedom and individual liberty.

Sincerely,

Adam Brandon President, FreedomWorks