McConnell amendment would force Dems' hand on Southwick nomination

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McConnell amendment would force Dems' hand on Southwick nomination

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) is attempting to force an up-or-down vote on Mississippi Judge Leslie Southwick, whose federal appeals court nomination has been blocked by Democrats on the Judiciary Committee.



McConnell has attached a "sense of the Senate" amendment to the Children's Health Insurance bill that supports Judge's Southwick's appointment to the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. A floor vote on McConnell's non-binding measure could take place as early as Friday if Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) does not succeed in getting it tabled.

Senator McConnell notes that last fall, every Democrat on the Judiciary Committee approved Southwick for a lifetime position on the federal bench -- yet now are applying a different standard by perpetuating the myth that Southwick has been unfair to homosexuals, women, and minorities.

"It's not fair to manufacture a false impression of someone through insinuation and innuendo, and then use that falsehood to defeat him," McConnell asserts. "In the case of Judge Southwick, the sudden perception about his fairness is driven by those who do not even know him -- and it is [disproved] by his long record by those who know him very well."

McConnell notes the left-leaning American Bar Association has twice given Judge Southwick its highest rating -- "well qualified" -- and "has found him to be exemplary in the areas of compassion, open-mindedness, freedom from bias, and commitment to equal justice under law."

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Conservative attorney: Sen. Schumer ignoring Constitution on judicial nominees

The head of a group that promotes constitutionalist judicial nominees says Senator Chuck Schumer (D-New York) is "turning the Constitution on its head" by vowing to block future Supreme Court nominees of President Bush.



Schumer says the Senate should not confirm another U.S. Supreme Court nominee under President Bush "except in extraordinary circumstances." The senior senator from the Empire State told the American Constitution Society convention that "the Supreme Court is dangerously out of balance" and that the nation "cannot afford to see Justice Stevens replaced by another Roberts, or Justice Ginsburg by another Alito."

Curt Levey, executive director of the Committee for Justice, disputes the senator's implication that the high court has taken a sharp turn to the right.

"Certainly the court took a small turn to the right," Levey acknowledges, "but if you look at where conservatives would like the court to be, I would say it's hardly a conservative court. As a matter of fact, its still a little bit to the left of where the American people are."

The Committee for Justice spokesman feels Schumer's comments are outrageous. Certainly Schumer is entitled to his opinion, Levey points out, and is entitled to oppose President Bush's nominees -- however, he adds, the New York lawmaker is not entitled to ignore the U.S. Constitution.

According to Levey, the Constitution clearly gives the Senate a deferential role in the selection of Supreme Court justices, allowing that body to provide advice and consent. But he emphasizes the president is the one who nominates, and those nominees are to be approved -- barring unethical behavior or a lack of qualifications.

Levey is hopeful that Schumer's Democratic colleagues are not as ready as the senator seems to be to overturn the Constitution.