Senate Confirms Judicial Nominee With Troubling Civil Rights Record
Feature Story by civilrights.org staff - 7/7/2004
After six hours of floor debate, the Senate on July 6 confirmed (51 to 46) controversial judicial nominee James Leon Holmes to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas. Holmes cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee along party lines in May 2003, but his confirmation was delayed for fourteen months due to controversy over his record on issues concerning women and minorities.Many civil rights groups, including the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR), opposed Holmes' confirmation because of his lack of a "commitment to advance and protect the equality of all Americans under the law." One example of Holmes' questionable record includes a 1997 article he co-authored, in which he subscribes to the view that a wife's obligation is to "subordinate herself to her husband" and "place herself under the authority of the man."
In another example given by LCCR, Holmes seemed to regard favorably in a 1981 article Booker T. Washington's "de-emphasis" of political activity for African Americans, stating that Washington "was able to regard unjust segregation laws with more equanimity than others" because spiritual rather than political "liberation" was of ultimate importance.
Five senators who voted against Holmes broke party lines, including Republican Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas, who said she based her vote on the conclusion "that [Holmes] doesn't have the fundamental commitment to the total even equality of women in our society." Senator Arlen Specter, R-Penn., whose misgivings with Holmes had gained recent publicity, voted in favor of the confirmation.
LCCR has stated that while "Holmes is certainly entitled to his personal opinions, " civil rights groups are concerned about his ability "to insulate his duties as a neutral arbiter of the law from his deeply-held personal views."
