Key Excerpt, Witness Testimony: Henderson on PRLDEF

Courtesy of CQ Transcriptions

CEO OF THE LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE COUNCIL ON CIVIL RIGHTS AND COUNSEL TO THE LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE EDUCATION FUND WADE HENDERSON: I must speak to the attacks on Judge Sotomayor because of her service on the board of one of our nation's leading civil rights organizations. These attacks do an injustice not only to Judge Sotomayor and to the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund, but also to the entire civil rights community and to all those who look to us for a measure of justice.

Make no mistake - legal defense funds play an indispensable role in American life. They are private attorneys general that assist individuals, often those with few resources and no other representation, to become full shareholders in the American dream. When Justice Thurgood Marshall was nominated, there were those who questioned his role with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. But history does not remember their quibbles kindly.

Judge Sotomayor has lived the American dream, and she understands all who aspire to it. Her qualifications are unquestioned, and the lessons that she has learned in her life, as well as in libraries, will serve her and our country well in the years ahead. All those who walk through the entrance to the Supreme Court seeking what is inscribed above its door, "Equal Justice Under Law," can be confident that a Justice Sotomayor will continue to do her part to keep the promise of our courts and our country. Thank you very much.

Read the full transcript of Henderson's testimony here.