NUL Denounces Senate Confirmation of Anti-Civil Rights Judge

The National Urban League denounced the confirmation of Judge Leslie Southwick by the U.S. Senate yesterday to fill the vacant seat on the 5th Circuit Court -- one of the most heavily minority circuits in the nation -- that covers Mississippi, Louisiana and east Texas.

Several members of the so-called Gang of 14, senators who agreed in 2005 not to hold up judicial nominations unless under “extraordinary circumstance,” joined with Southwick supporters to kill the filibuster that would have blocked a final vote. The 57-year-old jurist was then confirmed on a 59-38 vote.

During his tenure as a judge on the Mississippi Court of Appeals from 1995 to 2006, Southwick tended to favor the employer over the employee and the corporation over the consumer. In a 1998 employment case, he pulled an about-face, siding with a white state social worker rightly fired for using a racial slur against a black colleague.

“This nomination was exactly the kind of ‘extraordinary circumstance’ that provides an exception to the so-called Gang of 14 deal that paved the way for the confirmation of several anti-civil rights judges in 2005 and Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito in 2006,” said NUL President and CEO Marc Morial .

“If the inability to understand the meaning and damage of the most vicious racial slur in a workplace environment (or anywhere else, for that matter) is not an extraordinary trait in a federal judge, then nothing is and the ‘extraordinary circumstance’ exception is obviously meaningless,” Marc Morial added.

"This is certainly a sad day for Americans of color in this nation – especially for those who reside in the 5th Circuit,” Morial added.

Established in 1910, the National Urban League is the nation's oldest and largest community-based movement devoted to empowering African Americans to enter the economic and social mainstream.

The National Urban League (www.nul.org), headquartered in New York City, spearheads the non-partisan of the National Urban League located in 36 states and the District of Columbia providing direct services like job training, home ownership and educational assistance to millions of people nationwide along with extensive advocacy and research.