Senate Confirms Controversial Nominee Leslie Southwick
Feature Story by Tyler Lewis - 10/24/2007
The Senate voted (59-38) today to confirm controversial nominee Leslie Southwick to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
The vote was met with disappointment by the civil rights community who opposed Southwick on his record on the rights of workers, minorities, gays and lesbians and consumers.
"I'm especially disappointed in Senator Harry Reid's lack of leadership on this issue," said Wade Henderson, president and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR). "The Majority Leader was in control of this process from the time Southwick's nomination left the Judiciary Committee. The responsibility for Judge Southwick's confirmation rests squarely with Senator Reid."
Civil rights groups say that Southwick's consistent votes in favor of business interests over the rights of workers and consumers – 89 percent of the time, according to an LCCR letter to Senate Committee on the Judiciary -- is the most troubling aspect of his record.
Two specific cases have also been singled out as cause for concern.
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****."
The four dissenting judges in Richmond recognized this as 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.
However, Judge Southwick went further by joining a concurrence which held that homosexuality is a "choice that bears consequences."
As People for the American Way and the Human Rights Campaign stated in a letter of opposition to his nomination, "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.'"
Civil rights groups say that Southwick's confirmation reinforces 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 Leslie Southwick's confirmation is a slap in the face to African Americans and people of good will," said Henderson.
