Posted on 08/18/2007 7:20:06 AM PDT by freespirited
BEFORE BEING nominated by President Bush to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, Leslie H. Southwick served for almost 12 years on the Mississippi Court of Appeals, where he participated in thousands of cases spanning the gamut of civil and criminal law. A panel of the American Bar Association unanimously found Judge Southwick to be "well qualified" for the promotion, its highest ranking. Yet congressional opponents have latched on to two opinions that Mr. Southwick joined, but did not write, to argue that he is unfit for the federal appeals post. ...
Adding to the discomfort of many civil rights advocates is the fact that President Bush has once again nominated a white man to a court lacking in significant minority representation: Only 1 of 19 sitting judges on the 5th Circuit is African American, even though the three states forming that federal appeals court -- Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi -- have between 30 percent and 40 percent non-white residents, according to the 2000 Census.
For that reason, and because of his relatively pinched approach to judging, Judge Southwick wouldn't have been our first choice for this vacancy. Nor do we like the results in the custody and racial slur cases. But we cannot find fault with Judge Southwick's narrow but ultimately legitimate interpretation of the law in those cases, and we do not find in his record the anti-gay, anti-worker caricature his opponents have drawn. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (Calif.), the lone Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee to vote in favor of his confirmation, got it right when she concluded that if senators were to examine Judge Southwick's entire career, including his stint as a judge advocate in Iraq, they would find a "qualified, circumspect person."
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
More to the point would be the question:
"What percent of well-qualified jurists in those states are non-White?"
Or should we have minority judges regardless of their qualifications? Like Alcee Hastings?
litmus test ping!
Old Chuckie doing his thing - block them all - race don’t matter and neither do qualifications.
have no fear...the lib/dems will blockthe nomination solely because it is a bush nomination!!!!
This is just more race-baiting posturing by the Democrats. This is how they keep the black voters on their plantation - invent some BS racial charge against a Republican nomineee and then run the whisper campaigns in all the black communities and on the black radio stations just before the election.
Yeah, but it’s a Saturday editorial.
I think he’ll be OK. DiFi is a yes vote, and we always pick up some other RATS on these votes. I don’t know any GOP senator who will oppose him. I am optimistic that the GOP can break any filibuster and get him and up or down vote. Reid has said he will schedule a vote despite his strong opposition to the nomination.
Don’t worry, McConnell’s office will make sure that every Senator sees it.
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