Orrin Hatch: “I concur in Senator Grassley's analysis of the actions taken by the Appropriations Committee regarding race and gender…”

“I concur in Senator Grassley's analysis of the actions taken by the Appropriations Committee regarding race and gender bias studies. I rise to add that these studies have been ill-conceived, deeply flawed and divisive. In my view, they threaten the independence of the Federal judiciary. In the D.C. Circuit, for instance, the gender bias study was so controversial, and so poorly carried out, that a majority of judges on the D.C. Circuit have formally disavowed the study. Professor Stephen Thernstrom of Harvard University has investigated these studies and found them to be methodologically biased and flawed. There are to be no funds expended on these studies in the future.”