Gang of 10

Human Race | Senate Democrats hold hostage another judgeship | Lynn Vincent

5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals nominee Leslie H. Southwick

Senate Republicans earlier this month threatened to shut down chamber business after the 10 Democrats on the judiciary committee delayed a vote on the nomination of Leslie H. Southwick to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, citing possible racist and "homophobic" beliefs. Bush in January nominated Southwick, who served as Deputy assistant attorney general at the Justice Department and as a member of the Mississippi Court of Appeals from its creation in 1995 until 2004, when he deployed to Iraq with the National Guard's 155th Brigade Combat Team.

But at confirmation hearings, committee Democrats grilled Southwick on two cases. In one where the jurist voted to uphold a ruling awarding custody of a young girl to her father instead of her bisexual mother and used the term "homosexual lifestyle"; and another, where Southwick agreed with a majority decision in which the court ruled that a white social worker accused of using a racial slur against a co-worker should be reinstated to her job and given back pay. While the justice condemned the slur as "demeaning," he agreed with the Employee Appeals Board's argument that use of the term "had not sufficiently affected the workplace" to warrant her dismissal.