Judge reflects on ordeal

The Clarion-Ledger Editorial, 9/23/7

Seeing former state Court of Appeals Judge Leslie Southwick getting close to a Senate confirmation vote for the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, retired federal judge Charles W. Pickering must feel like Moses on the mountainside overlooking the land of Canaan.

Only a successful Senate filibuster is likely to derail Southwick’s confirmation in October, which is believed to be unlikely. Opposition to Southwick has not reached the depths it had for previous Mississippi Republican nominees for that seat. Democrats and special interest groups were able to block Pickering and Jackson lawyer Mike Wallace from confirmation in the Senate Judiciary Committee.