Leahy puts Southwick back on committee agenda

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) announced Wednesday that he would place 5th Circuit Court nominee Leslie Southwick back on the committee’s agenda. The maneuver is the latest in the partisan tussle over Southwick.

In recent weeks, Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) said that Leahy broke his commitment to move Southwick out of committee for a floor vote; Senate Judiciary Committee ranking member Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) said that Leahy assured him that Southwick would pass out of committee by a voice vote.

{mosads}Instead, Southwick’s nomination has languished.

Leahy counters that he took Southwick off the committee agenda in response to a Republican request. Indeed, in June Specter asked Leahy to hold off action on Southwick.

“[I]t’s clear to me that Mr. Southwick would be rejected if a committee vote is called,” he said at the time.

Leahy stated that he is returning Southwick to the agenda to rebut allegations of Democratic obstruction.

“I have been waiting patiently to hear back from the Republican senators who sought a delay in the consideration of Mr. Southwick’s nomination, yet there has been no request from any Republican senator that the committee move forward in its consideration,” said Leahy. “Instead, I have heard several Republican senators complain publicly about the delay that they themselves caused, and so I have returned this nomination to the committee’s agenda.”

Nevertheless, it remains unlikely that Southwick will garner enough Democratic votes to pass out of committee.

Southwick has drawn objections because he joined two controversial opinions while serving on the Mississippi Court of Appeals.

In one case, Southwick joined a narrow majority to uphold the reinstatement of a white state employee who had lost his job for using a racial slur. In another, he joined a decision to award custody of an 8-year-old child to her father instead of her bisexual mother. The decision inflamed liberal activists for its pointed use of the word “homosexual” instead of “gay.”