U.S. Senate
Washington, DC
Dear Senator:
On behalf of our 3 million members and the 50 million students they serve, we strongly urge you to VOTE YES on Nancy G. Abudu’s nomination to the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. Votes on this issue may be included in NEA’s Report Card for the 118th Congress.
One of our nation’s leading appellate civil rights attorneys, Ms. Abudu has spent her career defending our democracy and protecting the constitutional rights of Americans. The daughter of Ghanaian immigrants, Ms. Abudu received her B.A. from Columbia University and her J.D., with honors, from Tulane Law School. She has spent much of her life and career in the American South, safeguarding the fundamental right to vote, fighting against unlawful discrimination, protecting the rights of workers and LGBTQIA+ Americans, and ensuring that students have access to a quality public school education.
Ms. Abudu is eminently qualified to serve on the Eleventh Circuit. After serving as a staff attorney with the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, Ms. Abudu worked to advance justice in every state in the circuit: at the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project in Atlanta, Georgia; as the Legal Director of the ACLU of Florida in Miami, Florida; and as Deputy Legal Director, and later Director for Strategic Litigation, at the Southern Poverty Law Center, in Montgomery, Alabama. Ms. Abudu has extensive experience practicing before numerous circuit courts of appeal and the Supreme Court, and is deeply steeped in the law of the Eleventh Circuit and the court’s key areas of jurisprudence.
If confirmed, Ms. Abudu would be the first woman of color, and Black woman, to serve on the Eleventh Circuit, and the first person of color to serve on the circuit from Georgia. People of color make up 45 percent of the population in Alabama, Florida, and Georgia, including approximately 8.5 million Black Americans. Ms. Abudu’s nomination to the Eleventh Circuit addresses a long-standing gap in representation on the court, and will ensure the circuit better reflects the people it serves.
Please VOTE YES on Nancy G. Abudu’s nomination to the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.
Sincerely,
Marc Egan
Director of Government Relations
National Education Association
