WASHINGTON, DC — The U.S. Supreme Court must allow the trial of Jones v. Clinton to proceed immediately, says the Independent Women’s Forum (IWF), because no one should be above the law, especially when it comes to the sexual harassment of women.


“Any woman who has been sexually harassed must be allowed to have her day in court,” said IWF executive vice president and general counsel Anita Blair. “If the president is victorious in this case, and successfully hides behind a new definition of ‘presidential immunity,’ then Ms. Jones will be denied justice solely because the man she accuses has enormous power. Sexual harassment is, after all, about using power to demean women. If the president wins in this case, then he will be using his power to demean all women in this country.”


“A woman has charged that a man has sexually harassed her and the full force of the federal government is being employed in an effort to silence her. The Supreme Court can not allow that to happen.”


“This case certainly unveils the hypocrisy and lack of moral consistency of the National Organization for Women (NOW) and other women’s groups,” Blair continued. “Sexual harassment charges seem to be little more than political tools for NOW: they scream and picket when a Republican is charged with sexual harassment but when the accused is a Democrat, in this case President Clinton, NOW has nothing to say. Does NOW believe that only certain ‘types’ of men should stand trial for sexual harassment? Or, even worse, does NOW feel that only certain ‘types’ of women merit their support? NOW is as guilty as men who sexually harass — they both are using sexual harassment to play power politics.”


The IWF is a non-partisan, non-profit organization based in Washington, D.C.