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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 7, 2007
CONTACT: Curt Levey, (202) 270-7748,
clevey@committeeforjustice.org
Southwick Delay Imperils Judges Deal
Dems Shouldn't Follow Left's New Low
WASHINGTON, DC - The Committee for Justice (CFJ), which promotes constitutionalist judicial nominees and the rule of law, commented today on the failure of the Senate Judiciary Committee to vote on the nomination of former Mississippi judge Leslie Southwick to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. CFJ called on Senate Democrats to distance themselves from the personal attacks on Southwick.
"Twice now the Judiciary Committee has delayed voting on Southwick for no good reason," said CFJ executive director Curt Levey. "That's disturbing because it indicates that at least a couple of Democratic committee members are pandering to the ultra-liberal groups who reflexively label any white male judicial nominee from the South as racist."
Levey explained why he didn't expect even Democratic senators to bite at the allegations against Southwick: "We're all accustomed to these groups cherry picking and distorting a few of a nominee's previous judicial decisions and turning that into charges of racial or other insensitivity. And it's certainly nothing new that the attacks on Southwick's record are based entirely on the outcome of a few cases without even an attempt at legal analysis. But this time the allegations don't even pass the laugh test because they're based on opinions Southwick didn't write."
"Southwick's opponents are showing a certain contempt for the American public by trying to cynically exploit the fact that non-lawyers typically don't appreciate the huge difference between writing and joining an opinion," Levey added.
"That his opponents sifted through the nearly 7000 cases he voted on during his 12 years on the Mississippi Court of Appeals, yet choose to highlight a couple of opinions he didn't write is a testament to just how impeccable Southwick's record is," Levey explained. As former Mississippi Supreme Court Justice James Robertson - a Democratic appointee - said, "there is not a hint of racism in Judge Southwick's being."
Levey noted that "both Democratic and Republican senators deserve praise for approaching judicial nominations with a cooperative spirit in the 110th Congress." But he warned that "substantial delays in confirming Southwick will surely destroy the ‘peace treaty' on judges by signaling that Senate Democrats would rather pander than cooperate. Moreover, a delay will doom the one-a-month pace for appeals court confirmations that is required if Democrats are to make good on their promise to meet the historical average. The result will be to plunge the Senate back into the judges war that raged for much of the previous 3 Congresses."
Levey concluded that "both parties need to show some spine. We call on Senate Democrats to demonstrate that they have moved beyond taking orders from the Left on judicial nominations. And we call on the Republican leadership in the Senate to, if necessary, follow through on their promise to make Democrats pay a price for obstructing nominees. Regardless of party, it is shameful for any U.S. Senator to play along with the witch hunt against Leslie Southwick."
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