An Unacceptable Nominee

[Timbuk3]

Want to see if having a Democratic majority means anything? Wondering if Harry Reid is doing his job? Keep an eye on whether or not the nomination of Leslie Southwick makes it out of committee.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/05/opinion/05tue1.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print&oref=slogin

But don't just sit on your hands. This guy's a real piece of work.

http://www.slate.com/id/2167564/pagenum/all/#page_start

Call your Senator and let him/her know if this guy makes it out of committee they've let America down.

http://www.senate.gov/

This piece of trash should never get out of committee. It's time to end Bush's destruction of the Judiciary.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nan-aron/one-of-these-things-is-a-_b_50828.html?view=print

A non-negotiable quality for judicial nominees is that they must be committed to equal justice. Judge Southwick, whom President Bush has nominated for a seat on the New Orleans-based United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, repeatedly failed this test as a Mississippi state court judge.

-snip-

Judge Southwick’s judicial record also shows the usual pattern of President Bush’s judicial nominees: insensitivity toward workers, consumers and people injured by corporations. The federal appeals courts are already overloaded with judges who hold these biases.

When the voters put Democrats in the majority in Congress last fall, they were sending a message that the era of extremism in Washington should come to an end. Senate Democrats can show that they understood this message by rejecting Judge Southwick and insisting on a more moderate nominee, who will respect the rights of all.

Seriously, folks. This guy's worse than Pickering. Why on earth should the Senate Judiciary committee give him a pass when Bush is at an all-time low?

If President Bush had a Republican Senate behind him, Judge Southwick would no doubt sail through. He's the president's third try to fill a seat that's been vacant since 2003: The first nominee, Charles Pickering, went down in flames in 2004; the second one, Michael Wallace, was withdrawn. But Democrats control the judiciary committee, which will vote on Southwick's nomination Thursday. So, why is his confirmation hovering between likely and possible?

The Mississippi seats on the Fifth Circuit are the province of home state Sen. Trent Lott, who is good at getting his way.

[Timbuk3]

1. I updated

With a few relevant comments from the linked article. Forgive me for posting in my own thread, but this is important.

How can anyone possibly be happy accepting such an egregious judge (read the links) because "Lott is good at getting his way"?

[JeffR]

2. K & R!

:kick:

[Ilsa]

3. Thank you for posting this. I knew about So.wick, but my congresscritter

is an idiot - Ron Paul - but Ill send a note ayway to let them know we must oppose this nom.

[FloridaJudy]

4. Kicking to bookmark

Recommended.

[Timbuk3]

5. When I went to bed last night

This had 3 recommends on it.

When I woke up this morning; 13.

Thanks folks!

I see no reason to cede the judiciary to the extreme RW any longer.

[cascadiance]

6. Is this the judge to replace Reggie Walton? Perhaps demand NO State Secrets Privilege dismissals!

Ask candidates what their view is on whether cases can be completely dismissed with State Secrets privilege or if just certain pieces of evidences should be so and the cases allowed to move forward.

We need to FIX the equation that allowed judges like "State Secrets fan" Reggie Walton dismissing cases without hearing them just for this.

I'm also concerned about Walton's appointment to the FISA court and whether that will tip the balance of it from being a rubber stamp court to a complete "complicit" court for this administration in violating constitutional protections, etc. that is supposed to be there for, and will next time allow NSA Wiretapping type of cases to go through so that they no longer feel the need to bypass it as they once did.

We should demand that congress has more scrutiny of candidates for the FISA Court too. It doesn't look like they do, and they get nominated for 7 year terms, and the last three that have been appointed to it were appointed by Bush appointee Judge Roberts instead of Rehnquist. Pretty much all of them now have been put on this court since Bush took office (and we've had Republican control of congress during that time).

Current FISC Court:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Foreign_Intelligence_Surveillance_Court

Note that Colleen Kollar-Kotelly is presiding over it now. She was the same judge that overturned Microsoft's anti-trust ruling late Friday before the weekennd of the 2002 midterm election, which seemed VERY curiously timed. Not only that, but note that she'd ALREADY been appointed to the FISC court just a bit earlier before that ruling too, which makes it sound like she was "paid back" for that convenient Microsoft ruling with that nomination.

One of the last Clinton court appointees to be a part of this court, James Robertson left in protest in 2005 in protest over the NSA Wiretap situation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Robertson_%28judge%29

He was replaced by John Bates (appointed by Roberts), who served as Deputy Independent Counsel to the Whitewater investigation, and also dismissed the lawsuit by the GAO to get disclosure of what happened with Cheney's Energy Task Force.

http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/2006/03/judge_john_d_bates_appointed_t.html

Dee Vance Benson was a counsel to the Iran-Contra Congressional Investigating Committee in 1987.

[maddezmom]

7. Southwick nomination again delayed

Southwick nomination again delayed
By ELLYN FERGUSON
Gannett News Service

WASHINGTON – Continuing concerns about Mississippi judicial nominee Leslie Southwick forced the Senate Judiciary Committee today to postpone a second scheduled vote to send the nomination to the full Senate.

Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter, the top committee Republican, said he believes the committee will approve Southwick’s nomination.

However, committee chairman Patrick Leahy said objections from a number of civil rights groups about Southwick’s rulings in a handful of cases raise questions about the 57-year-old nominee’s commitment to equal justice.

Leahy, D-Vt., gave little indication of how he would vote. He noted that in his 30 years as a Judiciary Committee member that he usually deferred to a nominee’s home state senators.

more:
http://www.hattiesburgamerican.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070607/NEWS01/70607008

[Timbuk3]

8. Thanks for the update

This bears watching.

[maddezmom]

9. thanks for your original post

:thumbsup:

[Timbuk3]

11. You're welcome

I "dashed this off" in a hurry, last night, when I thought the vote was pending. I'm just not seeing anyone "on the left" demanding that the Democrats who we worked so hard to elect start taking a stand on Bush's most egregious nominees.

I'm glad it made the rec list because it's a start at getting this issue into "our" consciousness, but I'm still determined to write a more thought-provoking, and therefore more widely read, post on this subject, soon.

Really.

I think it's time we stopped letting a President who was first appointed by judges...appoint judges.

[blm]

10. The unprobed aspect of Alito was his fascist worldview - the media uses

abortion to kick up such a huge cloud that very little was ever mentioned about his anti-worker, pro-employer worldview.

The Democrats had all the ammo they needed to derail his confirmation if they only would have united SOLIDLY and PASSIONATELY behind a filibuster.