Bush’s Judge Nominee Upheld Case of White Worker who called co-worker "good ole nigger"

WASHINGTON - MAY 30 - President Bush has nominated Leslie Southwick to fill a seat on the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, which covers Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas. Bush previously tried to fill the seat with Charles Pickering and then Michael Wallace, both of whom faced significant opposition due to their disturbing legal records, especially on civil rights.

“Regrettably, Southwick also has a troubling record and appears to be cut from the same cloth as the others,” said Ralph G. Neas, President of People For the American Way. “First Pickering, then Wallace, and now Southwick – Bush has completely struck out on the Fifth Circuit.”

Southwick served as a judge on Mississippi’s intermediate appellate court – the Mississippi Court of Appeals – from 1995-2006. The court does not routinely consider the types of federal constitutional and civil rights matters that come before the Fifth Circuit, but Southwick’s judicial record is telling nonetheless. Two cases in particular serve to highlight Southwick’s lack of commitment to the social justice progress of the last fifty years.

In 1998, Southwick joined a ruling in an employment case that upheld the reinstatement, without any punishment whatsoever, of a white state employee who was fired for calling an African American co-worker a “good ole nigger.” The court’s decision effectively ratified a hearing officer’s opinion that the slur was only “somewhat derogatory” and “was in effect calling the individual a ‘teacher’s pet.’” The Mississippi Supreme Court unanimously reversed the decision. [MORE]