May 16, 2011, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government (ALG) President Bill Wilson today urged members of the U.S. Senate to block Susan Carney for the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.
“Carney’s dishonorable willful disregard for the truth and promotion of a falsehood disqualifies her from consideration to a lifetime appointment to the second highest court in the land,” Wilson wrote in his letter to Senate Republicans.
He cited an ongoing scandal between Yale University and Korean-based Dongguk University that Carney played a role in as Yale’s Deputy General Counsel. Wilson wrote, “In 2007, when it was revealed that a Dongguk University professor, Shin Jeong-ah, had not received a doctorate degree from Yale, Carney allegedly engaged in a cover-up to prevent information from surfacing showing that Yale had indeed confirmed to Dongguk that Shin was a Yale graduate, as revealed by court documents filed by Dongguk.”
The scandal was dubbed “Shin-gate” by the Korean media, and was a public relations disaster for Dongguk University, who is suing Yale for $50 million for damages. Because Yale had told Dongguk the degree was authentic, but then denied it publicly, it initially appeared that Dongguk was at fault. The University wrote to Carney, “if Yale University had revealed the fact in your first reply of July 10, 2007, Dongguk University would not have received a lot of harsh criticism from the public.”
Wilson explained, “At the time, Carney said the confirmation fax verifying Shin’s doctorate sent by Yale was ‘not authentic,’ even though it turned out that it was. She did not even apparently fully investigate Dongguk’s claim until the U.S. Justice Department issued a subpoena in the matter, and failed to even attempt to verify the authenticity of the fax, according to the plaintiffs.”
Carney has been voted out of the Senate Judiciary Committee, but, Wilson said, “The questions surrounding “Shin-gate” and Carney’s conduct were apparently never raised in the Judiciary Committee and warrant further investigation before Carney receives a lifetime appointment.”
“It would be reasonable for Senators to question Carney about why it took a U.S. Attorney enforcing a U.S.-Korean treaty on cooperation in criminal matters to discover that, indeed, Yale University had confirmed that Shin had received the degree,” Wilson noted.
He added, “It would be equally reasonable to question whether Yale University knew all along that it had sent the fax to Dongguk confirming the degree, and whether it was, with Carney’s knowledge, covering this fact up to salvage its own reputation.”
The lawsuit between Dongguk and Yale is ongoing.
Wilson concluded in a statement, “We urge members not to hide behind procedure or niceties, but to block Susan Carney for the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals based on her merits. As John Adams once said, ‘pretenses of politeness, delicacy, or decency… are but three different names for hypocrisy, chicanery, and cowardice.’ ”
The Senate will consider the nomination Tuesday at 10 a.m. ET and vote on the nomination at noon, according to The Hill.
Attachments:
ALG Letter Urging Senate Republicans to Block Susan Carney, May 11th, 2011 at www.getliberty.org/files/LetterCarney5-11-11.pdf.
Susan Carney Nominee Alert, Americans for Limited Government Research Foundation, March 2011 atwww.getliberty.org/files/SusanCarneyNomineeAlert.pdf.
Chronology of Events at http://washingtonalert.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/files-dongguk-university.pdf.
Dongguk v. Yale, Plaintiff’s Docket Complaint, March 24th, 2008 at http://washingtonalert.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/DonggukvYaleDocketcomplaint1.pdf.
Interview Availability: Please contact Rebekah Rast at (703) 383-0880 or at rrast@getliberty.org to arrange an interview with ALG President Bill Wilson.
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