Reid, other
Democrats move to block Southwick nomination

Senate majority leader Harry Reid announced that Democrats plan to block a Republican resolution asking for a vote on a Mississippi judge to serve on the fifth circuit court of appeals, reported the Associated Press on Wednesday.

Serious concerns have been raised over the nomination of Leslie Southwick, given his history of "insensitivity to the rights of racial minorities and others," according to Reid. The Feminist Majority Foundation has expressed strong opposition to Southwick, citing a 2001 ruling in which a mother was not granted custody of her child because of her involvement in a same-sex relationship.

According to the Associated Press, Southwick came under heavy criticism in 1998 for voting to reinstate a state employee after she was fired for using a racial slur against an African-American coworker. Southwick believed the slur "was not motivated out of racial hatred or animosity directed toward her coworker or toward blacks in general." (The Advocate)