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National Organization for Women denounce Supreme Court nominee Anthony Kennedy

By JOHN HANRAHAN

WASHINGTON -- The National Organization for Women denounced Supreme Court nominee Anthony Kennedy as a 'sexist' foe of women's rights Thursday and said he is as objectionable a choice as the recently rejected Robert Bork.

NOW President Molly Yard cited Kennedy's decision in a major women's pay equity case, his 'ambiguous' views on the right to privacy, his civil rights decisions and his membership until recently in an all-male club as the main reasons the organzation decided to call for the Senate to reject him.

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Speaking at a news conference, Yard said these and other actions by Kennedy, 51, a Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals judge in Sacramento, Calif., show that he is a sexist.

'It is totally unacceptable for a sexist to sit on the Supreme Court,' Yard said.

She added, 'Judge Kennedy is as unacceptable to us as Judge Bork,' and said that NOW's 150,000 members would work as hard as they did against Bork to publicize Kennedy's record and to lobby senators to vote against him.

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Kennedy, who was paying courtesy calls on senators Thursday when he was informed of NOW's criticism, said, 'I'll be glad to respond to that at the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.'

Asked whether his wife thought he was a sexist, he replied, 'I'll have to talk to my wife about that.'

Meanwhile, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Joseph Biden, D-Del., met Thursday with Howard Baker, the White House chief of staff, and Sen. Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, the committee's ranking Republican, to discuss a starting date for Kennedy's confirmation hearing.

No immediate decision was announced. Committee aides said Biden had proposed starting dates of Dec. 14, Jan. 5 or Jan. 20.

The announcement of opposition to Kennedy by NOW, the nation's leading liberal women's rights organization, marked the first formal anti-Kennedy position taken by any of the major groups that worked in a broad-based coalition against the Bork nomination.

Ralph Neas of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, which spearheaded the anti-Bork efforts, said the coalition was meeting Thursday to share information on Kennedy's rulings but that no immediate decision would be made as to whether to oppose him.

Neas, who has criticized some of Kennedy's civil rights decisions, said the nomination is barely a week old and various organizations need more time to study his record before taking a position.

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The Senate rejected the conservative Bork 58-42 last month, with the majority expressing fears that his past writings and speeches showed that his elevation to the high court would endanger civil rights and civil liberties gains of the last 30 years.

After Bork's rejection, President Reagan nominated Douglas Ginsburg who, like Bork, is a judge on the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. Ginsburg withdrew his nomination earlier this month amid a furor over his admitted use of marijuana as a student and Harvard law profesor. Reagan chose Kennedy on Nov. 11.

Yard said she was concerned that Kennedy's ambiguous language in a homosexual rights decision regarding privacy -- the right that underlies the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision permitting abortion -- raises the possibility he would overturn the landmark abortion ruling.

Adding to this concern, she said, is the fact that Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C. -- who threatened a filibuster when Kennedy's name first surfaced as a potential nominee after the Bork defeat -- now says he can support Kennedy based on a meeting he had with Kennedy.

'What did Kennedy promise Helms?' she asked. 'That question has to be probed by the Senate Judiciary Committee.'

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Yard said Kennedy's 1985 decision overturning a lower court ruling in a Washington state case involving 'comparable worth' pay for women shows that he does not practice 'judicial restraint' as Reagan has claimed and is insensitive to the economic disadvantages faced by women.

That ruling overturned a District Court decision that said some 35,000 workers in female-dominated jobs in Washington state were underpaid when their jobs were compared to others of similiar skills and responsibilities.

Yard also criticized Kennedy for ruling that a civil rights group lacked standing to bring a housing discrimination case, and for not resigning from a private club that barred women members until recently when his name was being put forward as a possible high court candidate.

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