Leslie Southwick: Another Attempt at Judicial Activism
Feature Story by Lindsey Catlett - 6/12/2007
The Bush administration has nominated another divisive judge for a life-long seat on the federal judiciary.
Judge Leslie H. Southwick, a former Mississippi state court judge nominated to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, has provoked serious concern from civil rights groups who say that his record calls into question his commitment to equal justice and his willingness to protect the rights of workers, consumers and other vulnerable parties.
Civil rights groups cite a number of cases that they say make Southwick a troubling nominee.
In Richmond v. Mississippi Dept. of Human Services, Southwick joined the 5-4 majority that upheld the reinstatement of a white social worker who was fired for calling a black employee a "good ole n****."
"[T]he opinion that Southwick joined accepted without any skepticism Richmond's testimony that her use of the racial slur was ‘not motivated out of racial hatred or animosity directed at her co-worker or toward blacks in general, but was, rather, intended to be a shorthand description of her perception of the relationship existing between the [co]-worker and [a Department of Human Services] supervisor,'" said Ralph G. Neas, president of the People for the American Way (PFAW) and Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), in a May 8 letter of opposition to the Senate Committee on the Judiciary.
The four dissenting judges in Richmond recognized this as a faulty argument and a threat to civil rights: "The word "n****" is, and has always been, offensive. […] There are some words, which by their nature and definition are so inherently offensive, that their use establishes the intent to offend." The dissenting opinion was confirmed when the Mississippi Supreme Court unanimously overturned Richmond.
In another case, S.B. v. L.W., Southwick joined the 5-4 majority that denied a woman custody of her child. The majority considered the sexual orientation of the mother to be a legitimate factor in deciding custody.
But Judge Southwick even went further by joining a concurrence which held that homosexuality is a "choice that bears consequences." As PFAW and HRC stated, "the concurrence appears to have been written for the sole purpose of underscoring and defending Mississippi's hostility toward gay people and what it calls ‘the practice of homosexuality.'"
Additionally, Southwick has consistently voted in favor of business over workers and consumers. The Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR) said that he voted pro-business 89% of the time, citing 160 out of 180 published split decisions where this occurred, in a letter to U.S Senate Committee on the Judiciary.
Civil rights groups are also concerned that Southwick's confirmation will reinforce the historical lack of diversity in the Fifth Circuit court. The circuit, comprised of Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi, has the highest percentage of minorities in the country. However, there is only one black appellate judge on the circuit and there has never been a black appellate judge from Mississippi.
"Judge Southwick's record reveals a striking indifference to the rights of ordinary Americans. From his consistent siding with powerful business interests to his insensitivity to workplace racism to his disparagement of gays and lesbians, Judge Southwick has aligned himself with the right wing against ordinary Americans," said LCCR President Wade Henderson. "The Republican Party's effort to pack the courts with judges who seek to impose their extreme ideology through their legal decisions is outrageous and must be opposed on the floor of the U.S. Senate."
The Senate will likely vote on Southwick's confirmation in the coming weeks.
