The editorial board of The New York Times launched a new blog yesterday with a post questioning Senator Dianne Feinstein’s support for Leslie Southwick, Bush’s nominee for New Orleans-based United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
Judge Southwick “has the sort of record that should have made his nomination dead on arrival,” wrote the author. “Mississippi Judge Leslie Southwick, whose record includes decisions that have been labeled anti-black and anti-gay, is just the sort of Bush judicial nominee everyone thought would be blocked when Democrats retook the Senate. But Judge Southwick may be headed for confirmation thanks to Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat.”
The New Employment Non-Discrimination Act Hurts Us All
The recent revisions to the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) have left us with a bill that no competent attorney representing the LGBT community would ever support.
More than 150 LGBT and other civil rights and community organizations are on record as opposing the new version of ENDA for a number of very compelling reasons as a legal organization our opposition is grounded in the reality of the cases we have seen and stories of clients we have heard over the years.
NCLR (home of EJS board member Kate Kendall), Lambda Legal, the ALCU Lesbian and Gay Rights Project, Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders and the Transgender Law Project are all unified in our opposition to a bill that will leave many lesbian, gay and bisexual, as well as transgender employees with no redress if fired from their jobs. The revised ENDA marks a major step backwards in the development of laws that protect LGBT employees from discrimination.
By dropping "gender identity" from the bill, this enormously important law, completely betrays the transgender community. Our transgender brothers and sisters have stood with this movement from our earliest beginnings. Transgender individuals loose jobs, are rejected from consideration for employment and are passed over for promotion at greater rates than lesbian, gay or bisexual employees.
Moreover, under the revised ENDA employers can claim-and we know they will-that a firing was not based on sexual orientation, but rather on the employees failure to act feminine or masculine enough. This kind of sex stereotyping is at the root of much of the discrimination against lesbians and gay men. Yet, this kind of discrimination will be perfectly legal under ENDA.
We have been working with our colleague organizations for years to pass an Employment Non-Discrimination Act that will protect the victims of discrimination we see every day. For years we have also made clear to key leaders in Congress that including gender identity in ENDA is the only way to protect all of us.
The loopholes in the new bill are not only based on the removal of gender identity, the section of ENDA which provided a religious exemption to some employers has been broadened to encompass hospitals and universities run by "faith-based" groups. Under the new version employers can refuse to extend health insurance benefits to couples in domestic partnerships, even if they provide such benefits to married couples.
There is no good reason to support this inferior, flawed and unacceptable version of ENDA. Over a dozen states have passed laws that include gender identity. We cannot and should not accept a federal law which is riddled with loopholes when we can and have been successful in passing laws that truly do protect us all from discrimination on the job. NCLR and our colleagues are committed to fighting for everyone in our community. We are committed to fighting not only the best ENDA we can get, but the ENDA we all deserve.
Senator Dianne Feinstein voted in favor of extremist judicial nominee Leslie Southwick, saying that nominees are “not just a collection of prior writings or prior judicial opinions” even though Southwick has:
* An abysmal record on racial discrimination issues * Expressed a willingness to discriminate against gays and lesbians * The worst record of his Mississippi Court of Appeals peers when it comes to workers rights
Urge Feinstein to vote against Southwick in the full Senate (visit NoSouthwick.com) because of his clearly demonstrated judicial extremism. The full Senate vote may take place the week of Oct. 15 so we need your help now!
Senator Feinstein’s Offices: Washington, D.C.: (202) 224-3841 San Francisco: (415) 393-0707 Los Angeles: (310) 914-7300 San Diego: (619) 231-1108
As a state appellate judge, Leslie Southwick had an abysmal record on racial discrimination issues. For example, he ruled to reinstate a white employee who had been fired for calling an African-American coworker “a good ole [‘n’ word].”
Southwick also routinely ruled against defense claims that prosecutors rejected African American jurors based on race; while at the same time, he has usually upheld allegations of race discrimination when prosecutors claim that the defense has rejected white jurors.
Southwick has also expressed a willingness to discriminate against gays and lesbians. In ruling to remove a child from the custody of her bisexual mother, he joined an anti-gay opinion that argued the “choice” to engage in homosexuality comes with consequences, up to and including the consideration of “the homosexual lifestyle” as a determining factor in child custody cases.
Finally, Southwick has the worst record of all judges on the Mississippi Court of Appeals when it comes to the rights of workers and victims of personal injury. In 160 of 180 divided published decisions, Southwick’s rulings have favored business and insurance interests over injured parties.
Justice Alito and Chief Justice Roberts both promised in Senate Confirmation hearings that their history of extremist decisions would be tempered by moderation and judicial restraint. However, just as we feared, these justices remained true to their pre-nomination ideology and in case after case pushed a conservative, reactionary agenda that caused serious cutbacks in employment discrimination law, reproductive freedom, and most recently, voluntary racial integration plans.
CALL SENATOR FEINSTEIN TODAY AND URGE HER TO VOTE AGAINST THE CONFIRMATION OF LESLIE SOUTHWICK!
It only takes minutes. All you need to do is call and tell her office that you urge the Senator to vote against the confirmation of Leslie Southwick. They ask for your zip code and you are done.
The Californians for Fair and Independent Judges is a coalition of more than 50 organizations working to protect the independence of the federal courts. Our member organizations represent a wide spectrum of communities and causes: environmental, civil rights, civil liberties, reproductive rights, faith based, ethnic, labor, disability, gay rights, seniors, and women’s communities.
Keith Kamisugi is the director of communications at the San Francisco-based Equal Justice Society, a national strategy group co-founded and led by Eva Paterson heightening conscious on race in the law and popular discourse. [bio]
