Congressional Black Caucus

Floor Speech

CONGRESSIONAL BLACK CAUCUS -- (House of Representatives - October 22, 2007)

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Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Thank you very much.

Mr. Speaker, I join members of the Congressional Black Caucus, who have unanimously opposed the nomination of Leslie Southwick to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.

For the record, Mr. Speaker, the Fifth Circuit is composed of Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas. This circuit historically was one of those circuits that moved civil rights and voting rights issues in a manner that allowed all people representation. So what we've seen under the President's administration, we've seen this court move in the opposite direction.

As a resident of Mississippi and a representative for the Second Congressional District, we have yet to have a member of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals who is an African American. We have the highest population of any circuit in the State in the circuit; yet we are completely void of representation.

I don't have to go through the litany of problems we've had in Mississippi with respect to civil rights. As you know, and as so many know, Mr. Speaker, had it not been for the Federal court system, many of us would not be in elected office. Many of us would not hold positions of higher responsibility because our State denied African Americans, for a number of years, equal representation under law and denied that representation because of color.

And so what we have in the Southwick nomination, Mr. Speaker, is a continuing pattern of nominating people who have demonstrated racial insensitivity toward people of color. In the Richmond v. Mississippi Department of Human Services, a white employee was fired for using the phrase ``good ole nigger'' toward an African American coworker. When the white employee was fired, a hearing officer reinstated the employee.

In upholding the reinstatement, the majority, Mr. Speaker, which Judge Southwick joined, concluded that using the phrase ``good ole nigger'' was equivalent to calling the other employee her ``teacher's pet''. This opinion, I'm happy to say, Mr. Speaker, was unanimously reversed by the Mississippi Supreme Court. And this is our President's number one nominee for the Fifth Circuit, who says that it's all right to use the ``N'' word when referring to people of color because it's equivalent to being called the ``teacher's pet,'' or as he said in later words, ``a term of endearment.'' That's an insult. But it goes to the crux of the issue of whether or not the temperament of this gentleman, Leslie Southwick, fits promotion to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.

In addition to that, on another case, McWilliams v. Mississippi, when a prosecutor cites nonracial readiness for strikes. Davis v. Mississippi is another case. Judge Southwick denied the defense's warranted attempts to strike white jurors, even when the defense used the same nonracial reasons for strikes. Webb v. Mississippi. In other words, it's all right to strike black people from juries for nonracial reasons, but you can't strike white people from juries for nonracial reasons.

So, Mr. Speaker, we have a problem. This is the person under consideration this week by the United States Senate. I'm happy to say that the Congressional Black Caucus has taken up a number of issues this session, but the Southwick nomination really goes to the heart of why we are all here. We cannot put people on the bench for a lifetime job who demonstrate this kind of insensitivity.

So, Mr. Speaker, I am happy to join my colleagues with the Congressional Black Caucus in unanimously opposing the elevation of Judge Southwick to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. His nomination is not just an affront to people of color, but it is an affront to people of good will. That someone who demonstrated a lack of judicial temperament can actually be nominated and be given serious consideration by the United States Senate is beyond me.

But, again, I want to express my sincere opposition to the nomination of Leslie Southwick to the Mississippi Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. Mississippi needs a nominee who will not look to discourage or impede its growth, but instead support and empower Mississippi's legacy. I appreciate my colleague from Ohio yielding me the time.

Mrs. JONES of Ohio. Mr. Chairman, just for a moment, I recall only a few months ago that you and the Chair of our Congressional Black Caucus, Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, were actually over at the Senate side when this was in committee.

Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. That's correct.

Mrs. JONES of Ohio. Can you recount for us briefly what you encountered in that hearing?

Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Well, the record will reflect, Mrs. Tubbs Jones, that at that hearing significant evidence was introduced as to the statistical probability of African Americans being nominated to the court. It was also introduced that the population of African Americans was the greatest in the State of Mississippi, that Mississippi had fewer individuals on the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals and has never had an African American on a court in its entire history from the State of Mississippi. So this is a golden opportunity, it was a golden opportunity for President Bush to do the right thing. But this was his third nominee for this one judgeship. Each of the other individuals who he has nominated also had that judicial temperament and their qualifications questioned to the point that they were denied.

So what we have here is a third bite at an apple that really deserves reconsideration by the President. But since he did not choose to do so, I am committed, like the other members of the Congressional Black Caucus, to make our voices heard this week on the floor of the United States Senate with its colleagues there to say that this is not the America that we all want to be known for.

And so that issue, Mrs. Tubbs Jones, was thoroughly aired. I am disappointed that a letter from Judge Southwick swayed one member of the Judiciary Committee to change their vote. You know, we can all write letters. But in the record, we have opposing views from the Magnolia Bar, which is the African American Bar Association in the State of Mississippi, the Mississippi NAACP, a whole host of elected officials and others saying that this is not in the best interests going forth with this nomination.

So we believe that the record was complete and that a thorough airing of what is before that Judiciary Committee would have basically provided significant opposition to Judge Southwick. But, you know, this is politics. That letter changed the position of one member on the judiciary who did not talk to anybody from Mississippi, did not talk to anybody from California, did not talk to anybody who had an interest diametrically opposed to the person under consideration. They took a letter, read it into the Record, and made a decision as to a person saying, I will do better now that I understand that it is not proper to use the N word or that it is not proper to deny African Americans positions on juries just because they happen to be black.

Well, that is not enough in my book, nor the Congressional Black Caucus's book, to warrant a person being elevated to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. Now, the reason I say that, to be honest with you, is that the majority of the voting rights and civil rights legislation that comes before the court generally comes from that circuit. So if you have someone who demonstrates time and time again that they lack the temperament, that they lack the judicial restraint to deal with cases relating to people of color, then that person should not be promoted to that position for which they are not made. So for that reason, I am happy to be here on behalf of those Members who serve the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in the United States House of Representatives.

We have, as you know, gone on record many times in writing opposing the nomination. We reiterated that opposition today in a letter when we found out that it would be considered sometime this week. So there is no question that people who represent individuals, more than 700,000 American citizens, in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals district are in opposition to it. And how one can take a letter from the person that is nominated and say that that one letter rises above those hundreds of thousands of people who have sent individuals to represent them here in Washington gets beyond me. But, again, we will continue to press the case. As you know, we are prepared to speak to the leadership before the issue is considered and do other things, because this is too big an issue for us not to give it our maximum effort.

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