GOP scores big win with Southwick confirmation

I held off in commenting on this story at first because my views may be biased based on my own experience with a prejudiced judge. With Southwick's confirmation, I have to wonder how many gays and members of minority groups will find themselves not getting fair treatment in legal decisions. I am also disgusted that the Democrats did not fight to keep this guy off the 5th Circuit. The Democrats truly need to get some back bone, otherwise we are little better off than when the GOP controled Congress. Here are highlights of The Hill's take on the story (http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/gop-scores-big-win-with-southwick-confirmation-2007-10-24.html):

A united GOP conference convinced enough Democrats to cross party lines to first clear a procedural hurdle and then succeed in the confirmation vote. Southwick has been arguably the most contentious judicial nominee of the 110th Congress up to this point, amid strong opposition from Democratic leaders and liberal groups. Senators had invoked cloture in a 62-35 vote and, minutes later, confirmed Southwick on a 59-38 vote.

Reid added that the nomination must be viewed in the “the context of race and civil rights.” “For many African-Americans, the federal courts have historically represented the first, last and often the only form of redress against racism and civil injustice,” Reid said before pointing to the opposition of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and other groups to the Southwick nomination as one of the reasons why he voted no. The CBC and the NAACP, in addition to other liberal groups, have charged that Southwick had a hostile record toward minorities while serving on the Mississippi Court of Appeals from 1995 to 2006.

Especially contentious is Southwick’s vote in a 1998 case, in which he joined a ruling that upheld the reinstatement of a state employee who was fired for using a racial slur against a black co-worker. Opponents of Southwick have also targeted a 2001 decision, in which he supported giving custody of an 8-year-old girl to a father, saying the mother was living with another woman in a “lesbian home.”