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From April 2002 NASW NEWS The judge's record demonstrates hostility to NASW priorities. By Katy O'Grady, Special to NASW NEWS At the News deadline, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted 10 to 9 to reject the nomination of Judge Charles Pickering, Sr., to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, a nomination to which NASW had expressed profound opposition in a letter sent to every committee member in early February. NASW had also urged association members to contact their U.S. senators and the committee to register their personal opposition to Pickering's confirmation. NASW based its opposition on Pickering's record as a district court judge and state senator, a record that the association said demonstrated hostility to NASW priorities -- specifically, civil rights, voting rights and a woman's right to choose. In her letter to the Judiciary Committee members, NASW Executive Director Elizabeth J. Clark stated, "It is overwhelmingly clear that Judge Pickering's record demonstrates his serious, long-standing and consistent disregard for civil rights and individual liberties." In a 1959 law review article, Pickering urged a remedy that would let Mississippi authorities bring felony prosecutions for interracial cohabitation. He supported the Mississippi Sovereignty Commission, a state-funded agency established to oppose integration efforts after the landmark 1954 Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision. Pickering also fought implementation of the 1965 Voting Rights Act and cosponsored a resolution for its repeal. In the 1970s as a state senator, he twice voted for a reapportionment plan that would increase the number of senators per district while diluting the voting strength of African Americans and other racial minorities. In 1976, Pickering supported the first inclusion of a plank in the Republican Party platform protesting the Supreme Court's decision in Roe v. Wade and calling for an amendment to the U.S. Constitution to ban abortion. In 1993, Pickering published an opinion questioning the "one-person-one-vote" doctrine as "obtrusive." His rulings have frequently been reversed for discarding controlling precedent on constitutional rights and improperly denying people access to the courts. NASW contended that every appointment of a federal court jurist is critically important to all Americans because federal rulings can have influence beyond the geographic area in which they are decided. The Fifth Circuit covers Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas, an area in which 43 percent of the population is either African American or Hispanic. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals issues numerous opinions that affect ethnic minorities in the desegregated South, making it especially important that those appointed to the circuit hold no hostility to the laws and principles that ensure equal opportunity for all Americans, Clark wrote. NASW believes that Pickering's 40-year history of immoderate positions should disqualify him from serious consideration for the Fifth Circuit or any federal circuit, she said. NASW Senior Government Relations Associate Lawrence Moore said that the primary organizations with which NASW worked to defeat Pickering's confirmation are the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, NAACP, People for the American Way, the American Association of University Women and the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League. Back to NASW NEWS Contents
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