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Saying that his “…demonstrated contempt for civil and voting rights would undercut established rights and protections,” the national NAACP is actively opposing President Bush’s renomination of U.S. District Court Judge Terrence W. Boyle to the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. “Judge Boyle’s record clearly indicates an hostility towards voting rights, disability rights, civil rights, prisoner’s rights, and cases involving race for African Americans and other racial and ethnic minorities in North Carolina, a state where African-Americans are, according to the 2000 Census, 21.2% of the population—one of the largest African American populations in any state,” wrote Hilary O. Shelton, head of the NAACP’s Washington Bureau, in a March 9th e-mail “Action Alert.” Shelton also called Judge Boyle “a right-wing extremist.” Other liberal and progressive groups, including People for the American Way, the Southern States Police Benevolent Association and the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, have also lined up to oppose Judge Boyle’s renomination. Bush renominated Judge Boyle last month along with 19 other conservative judges who were not confirmed by the U.S. Senate during the Republican president’s first term. Boyle was first nominated to the 4th Circuit in 1991 by President George H. W. Bush after having served on the federal bench since 1984, but failed confirmation when the elder Bush lost reelection in 1992. [more]