On January 16th, The Human Rights Campaign sharply criticized President Bush for his recess appointment of Mississippi Judge Charles Pickering
to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Pickering is one of only six
judges that HRC has opposed out of approximately 200 nominated by the
president.
"Judge Pickering has advanced a body of jurisprudence that does
not reflect America's highest values and the individuals within his
jurisdiction deserve better," said HRC President Cheryl Jacques. "A man
whose career has been marked by racial divisiveness and anti-gay
prejudice cannot be trusted to fairly interpret the laws of our
country."
In a speech before the 1984 Mississippi Southern Baptist
Convention, Pickering lumped homosexuality with social problems,
according to The Clarion Ledger, a Jackson, Miss., newspaper.
"We as Southern Baptists should lead the way in strengthening
traditional moral values," he said, adding that society has been
degraded by such things as pornography, homosexuality and divorce,
according to The Clarion Ledger.
As an organization profoundly concerned about hate violence, HRC
is particularly troubled by Pickering's handling of a 1994 hate crime
incident involving three men who burned an 8-foot cross on the lawn of
an interracial family while using racial epithets. The family had been a
frequent target of harassment in their small rural town, including
having bullets fired into their home and "KKK" painted nearby on the
street.
Nonetheless, when sentencing one of the defendants, Pickering
gave what was considered a "lenient" sentence for the cross-burning, in
order to "make the punishment commensurate with the drunken prank that I
think it was, even though it did have racial overtones."
"Judge Pickering's placement in the 5th Circuit is particularly
problematic, given that the 5th Circuit has the highest racial minority
population of any circuit in the country," said Jacques. "We urge the
President to appoint fair-minded judges who will respect the civil
rights of every American."
Pickering's appointment is also opposed by the NAACP, the
Leadership Conference on Civil Rights and dozens of other mainstream
civil rights groups.
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