Hearing Scheduled Tomorrow on Southwick
Opposing Judge Southwick are number of civil and consumer rights groups, such as the Alliance for Justice. According to one of their reports, Judge Southwick “has an 89 percent record of voting against workers, consumers and other victims in divided decisions.” When questioned by Senators on this record, AFJ adds, “he could not find a single non-unanimous case, of the more than 7000 opinions that he wrote or joined, in which he voted in favor of a civil rights plaintiff or wrote a dissent on behalf of a plaintiff.” The AFJ report also argues that Judge Southwick demonstrated a bias against claims of discrimination towards African-Americans, while simultaneously favoring allegations of discrimination against whites. According to the report, "Judge Southwick . . . routinely rebuffed allegations of prosecutorial racism against African Americans in jury selection while upholding allegations of anti-white discrimination levied against defendants."
In one case in particular, Judge Southwick joined a concurrence arguing that persons who "choose . . . the homosexual lifestyle" are less fit to raise children than straight parents. In another controversial decision, he joined a narrow majority in concluding a social worker was wrongfully terminated when she was fired for referring to an African-American co-worker by a racially charged term beginning with the letter "n."
Some advocates for Judge Southwick, such as the Committee for Justice, argue that Southwick’s troubles are the result of “Southern White Male Nominees Fac[ing] Bias in Senate.” They argue that opposition to Southwick is nothing more than "playing the race card.”