SEARCH
Alert: Another Bad Bush Nomination in the Works |
|
This one involves his nomination of Leslie Southwick for a lifetime appointment to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit. The Senate vote on Southwick, scheduled for this week, was postponed to June 14.
Southwick, currently a judge on the Mississippi Court of Appeals, has a sorry record on key consumer and workers’ issues. He consistently ruled against compensation for on-the-job injuries and supported reinstatement of a worker who used ugly racial epithets on the job, according to a letter from AFL-CIO Legislative Director Bill Samuel. Samuel wrote to Sen. Patrick Leahy, chairman of the Senate Committee on Judiciary, urging the committee to reject Southwick’s nomination.
Southwick is being nominated to the seat for which Bush previously nominated Charles Pickering in 2002. The Senate refused to confirm Pickering because of concerns over his civil rights record, among other issues. Bush then by-passed the Senate and gave Pickering a controversial recess appointment. When Pickering achieved senior status, Bush submitted a nominee to replace him—one whom the American Bar Association found to be unqualified. After that nominee withdrew, Bush nominated another judge with a troubling civil rights record.
In Richmond v. Mississippi Department of Human Services, Southwick upheld the reinstatement of a state social worker who had been fired for using an ugly racial epithet in a condescending reference to a co-worker. Writes Samuel:
The AFL-CIO is very disturbed by this decision, which was unanimously reversed by the Mississippi Supreme Court. In our view, the decision reveals a disturbing lack of appreciation for the negative impact of this sort of language in the workplace.
Samuel writes Southwick’s dissenting opinion in Cannon v. Mid-South X-Ray Co. and E. I. Du Pont de Nemours & Co.,
illustrates the basis for our concern. Annie Cannon worked as a darkroom technician and used a variety of toxic chemicals in the course of her job. She began having health problems, including burning eyes, extreme nausea, and severe headaches, and later developed severe seizures. Cannon sought medical treatment for these problems, but it was not until 1993 that a doctor associated her illnesses with her exposure to chemicals at work. Eight judges on the court of appeals voted to allow Cannon to bring suit over her injuries, ruling that the statute of limitations on her claim did not begin to run until she learned that her injuries were work-related. But Judge Southwick dissented and would have dismissed Cannon’s claim as time-barred, saying that the statute of limitations began to run when she first became ill, even if she was unaware that if she was unaware that her job was causing her illness. This narrow view of workers’ right to recover damages for work-related injuries is extremely troubling.
Check out the AFL-CIO BushWatch feature to find more information on Bush’s inappropriate nominees, egregious executive orders and more.
Read Samuel’s full letter here.
No Comments
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
