Senate blocks filibuster, confirms Southwick
- Oct 24, 2007 - comment
The Senate confirmed Oct. 24 another nominee to a federal appeals court after a contentious battle.
The Republicans stayed unified and gained enough Democrats to bring up for a vote the nomination of Leslie Southwick to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. The 62-35 vote to invoke cloture, which ends debate and prevents a filibuster, surpassed the three-fifths majority needed. The Senate followed with a 59-38 vote for Southwick’s confirmation, which required only a simple majority.
Southwick is the latest in a series of nominees by President Bush to federal appeals courts whose confirmations have been blocked or delayed by Democrats either in the Judiciary Committee or in the full Senate.
After the votes, Bush thanked the Senate, calling Southwick a “man of character and intelligence who will apply the law fairly.” The president, however, said he had nominated other “highly qualified men and women” and urged senators to give them “fair up or down votes.”
The Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, as well as other organizations that support the confirmation of judges committed to interpreting the Constitution based on its original intent, commended the votes on Southwick.
“I’m encouraged to see that the Senate is still capable of doing the right thing,” said Barrett Duke, the ERLC’s vice president for public policy. “I am confident Judge Southwick will make a significant contribution to the Fifth Circuit.”
Until early August, it appeared Southwick’s nomination, which was announced in January, may not escape the Judiciary Committee. Then, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat from California, joined the nine Republicans on the committee to forward the nomination to the full Senate in a 10-9 vote.
Democrats and liberal organizations said they were opposed to Southwick’s confirmation based on his agreement with two written opinions as a member of the Mississippi Court of Appeals, according to The Hill, a Washington newspaper.
One opinion Southwick signed onto awarded custody of an 8-year-old girl to her father instead of her bisexual mother. In the same case, he joined in a concurring opinion that used the word “homosexuals” instead of “gays,” a word choice that brought condemnation from his critics. The other decision targeted by opponents was the court’s affirmation of the reinstatement of a white state worker who had used a racial epithet, The Hill reported.
Feinstein said she would not vote for Southwick if she believed he were racist.
Twelve Democrats and an independent, Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, joined the 49 GOP members to invoke cloture on Southwick’s nomination.
The Fifth Circuit, which is based in New Orleans, consists of the states of Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas.
Southwick, 57, is an adjunct professor at the Mississippi College School of Law. He took a leave of absence from the Mississippi Court of Appeals to serve on active duty with the Mississippi National Guard in Iraq from August 2004 to January 2006. During that time, he served as a judge advocate.
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