Leslie H. Southwick

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Leslie H. Southwick
Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
Assumed office
October 29, 2007
Appointed byGeorge W. Bush
Preceded byCharles W. Pickering
Personal details
Born
Leslie Harburd Southwick
J.A.G. Corps

Leslie Harburd Southwick (born February 10, 1950) is a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and a former judge of the Mississippi Court of Appeals.

Early life and education

Born in

cum laude from Rice University in 1972 and received his Juris Doctor from the University of Texas School of Law
in 1975.

Career

Following law school, Southwick clerked for the Presiding Judge, John F. Onion, Jr., of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals from 1975 to 1976, and then, in Mississippi, for Judge Charles Clark of the United States Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals from 1976 to 1977.[2]

Southwick was in private practice as an attorney in Jackson, Mississippi with the firm Brunini, Grantham, Grower & Hewes from 1977 to 1989, serving as a partner from 1983 to 1989. In 1989, Southwick entered government service as a Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the United States Department of Justice Civil Division. There he supervised the one hundred and twenty-five lawyers of the Federal Programs Branch, which defends suits brought against the United States. He also supervised the Office of Consumer Litigation, a twenty-five lawyer division charged with civil and criminal enforcement of federal consumer laws.

Southwick was elected one of the first ten judges of the Mississippi Court of Appeals in 1994. He was a candidate for a seat on the

155th Brigade Combat Team of Mississippi Army National Guard
.

Southwick also taught law as an adjunct professor at the Mississippi College School of Law and was a member of the American Inns of Court, Charles Clark Chapter.

Federal judicial service

Southwick with Trent Lott in October 2007

On January 9, 2007, President

110th Congress.[8]

Finding itself without a nominee to a judgeship that had already sat vacant for two years, the White House turned to Southwick, then a nominee to a vacancy on the

Senate Judiciary Committee
on September 19, 2006 and was reported favorably to the floor of the Senate by the Committee on September 29, 2006. However, Southwick, like many other judicial nominees, failed to receive a vote by the full Senate before the 109th Congress adjourned for good on December 9, 2006. Pursuant to Senate rules of procedure, his nomination, along with many others, was returned to the President.

Southwick's successive federal nominations within seven months of each other, though unusual, were not unprecedented. In May of 2006, the Bush White House similarly nominated

Jerome A. Holmes to a vacancy on the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit after nominating him to a vacancy on the United States District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma in February of 2006.[10][11]

The Senate Judiciary Committee of the 110th Congress held a hearing on Southwick's nomination to the Fifth Circuit on May 10, 2007. The hearing was chaired by Rhode Island Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse. Just prior to the hearing, controversy arose over the nomination.

Southwick's nomination was opposed by the People for the American Way,[12] the Human Rights Campaign,[13] and the Congressional Black Caucus,[14] who alleged that Southwick was racially intolerant and homophobic. Two cases that Southwick participated in as a state judge formed the primary basis for the groups' charges.

In the first case, Richmond v. Mississippi Department of Human Services, Southwick joined the majority opinion upholding the decision of the Mississippi Employee Appeals Board to reinstate a white state employee (Richmond) who was fired for a single incident of referring to a black co-worker as a "good ole nigger" outside of the co-worker's presence. When the black co-worker was informed of Richmond's comment, Richmond immediately apologized, and her apology apparently was accepted. The Appeals Board's decision to reinstate Richmond was based, in part, on a hearing officer's opinion that the slur was only "somewhat derogatory" and "was in effect calling the individual a 'teacher's pet.'".[15] Bound by law to affirm a decision of the Appeals Board supported by substantial factual evidence, the court held it had no authority to set aside the findings in this case, even though Richmond's remark was "undoubtedly ill-advised and indicative of a rather remarkable insensitivity.".[16]

On

Mississippi Supreme Court agreed that "the unique circumstances of this case do not warrant imposition of the ultimate penalty of dismissal." However, the court found the record was insufficient to uphold the Employee Appeals Board's decision that Richmond effectively receive no penalty whatsoever. It decided to remand the case "in order for the board to impose an appropriate penalty less than dismissal, or to make detailed findings as to why no penalty should be imposed."[17]

The second case often cited by Southwick's critics is S.B. v. L.W., an 8-2 decision upholding a chancellor's decision to grant sole custody of an eight-year-old girl to her father, in part because the mother was a lesbian who had lived with several different partners during the child's life. Southwick joined the majority opinion as well as a concurrence written by Judge Payne which states, in part:

¶ 33. I do recognize that any adult may choose any activity in which to engage; however, I also am aware that such person is not thereby relieved of the consequences of his or her choice. It is a basic tenet that an individual's exercise of freedom will not also provide an escape of the consequences flowing from the free exercise of such a choice. As with the present situation, the mother may view her decision to participate in a homosexual relationship as an exertion of her perceived right to do so. However, her choice is of significant consequence, as described before in the discussion of our State's policies, in that her rights to custody of her child may be significantly impacted.[18]

After intense Democratic opposition, Southwick was reported out of Committee by a 10-9 vote on August 2, 2007 when Democratic California Senator Dianne Feinstein voted with the Committee's nine Republicans to send Southwick to the full Senate with a favorable report. Southwick was confirmed by a 59–38 vote on October 24, 2007.[19] Southwick's confirmation came almost ten months after his nomination to the Fifth Circuit and over a year after he was first nominated to a federal judgeship. He received his commission on October 29, 2007.[20] Southwick was sworn in as judge of the Fifth Circuit on October 30, 2007.[citation needed]

His first published opinion for the Fifth Circuit was Anthony v. United States, which was released on March 4, 2008. Southwick wrote for a unanimous three judge panel on an issue involving the valuation of private annuities for estate tax purposes. His first published dissent was in Louisiana ex rel. Caldwell v. Allstate Insurance Co., 536 F.3d 418 (5th Cir. 2008) in which Southwick dissented from the assumption of federal jurisdiction under the Class Action Fairness Act.

In August 2018, Southwick found that the Texas Medical Board was entitled to qualified immunity for its unconstitutional warrantless search of a doctor's patient records, drawing an unusual concurrence dubitante from Circuit Judge Don Willett.[21][22]

Personal

Southwick is married and has two children. He is

Operation Iraqi Freedom
.

Bibliography

  • Presidential Also-Rans & Running Mates, 1788-1996. Published by McFarland & Co., Jefferson, NC, 1998 (second edition)
  • The Nominee: A Political and Spiritual Journey. Published by University Press of Mississippi, Jackson, Miss, 2013

See also

References

  1. ^ "Southwick, Leslie Harburd".
  2. ^ "Judicial Nominations - Judge Leslie H. Southwick".
  3. ^ Leslie Southwick, Mississippi Supreme Court Elections: A Historical Perspective 1916-1996, 18 Miss. C. L. Rev. 115 (1997-1998).
  4. ^ "Press Release: Nominations Sent to the Senate". 2007-01-09.
  5. ^ "CNN.com - Pickering appointment angers Democrats - Jan. 17, 2004". www.cnn.com. Retrieved 2022-09-25.
  6. ^ a b "Pickering retires from federal bench". NBC News. 9 December 2004. Retrieved 2022-09-25.
  7. ^ "Nominations Sent to the Senate". georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov. Retrieved 2022-09-25.
  8. ^
    ISSN 0190-8286
    . Retrieved 2022-09-25.
  9. ^ "Nominations Sent to the Senate". georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov. Retrieved 2022-09-25.
  10. ^ "Nominations Sent to the Senate". georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov. Retrieved 2022-09-25.
  11. ^ "Nominations and Withdrawal Sent to the Senate". georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov. Retrieved 2022-09-25.
  12. ^ "People for the American Way - Senators Should Reject Bush's Latest Nominee to 5th Circuit". Archived from the original on 2007-08-07. Retrieved 2007-08-16. Senators Should Reject Bush's Latest Nominee to 5th Circuit; People for the American Way; May 30, 2007
  13. ^ "Take Action: Take Action! Don't Let Prejudice Trump Justice". Archived from the original on 2007-08-25. Retrieved 2007-08-16. Take Action! Don't Let Prejudice Trump Justice; Human Rights Campaign; August 15, 2007
  14. ^ [1] The Congressional Black Caucus Denounces Appointment of Southwick; Congressional Black Caucus; August 2, 2007
  15. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2007-09-28. Retrieved 2007-08-16.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) Richmond v. Mississippi Dept of Human Services (Miss. Ct. App. 1998) Retrieved October 31, 2007
  16. ^ Southwick4
  17. ^ [2] Richmond v. Mississippi Dept of Human Services (Miss. 1999) Retrieved August 20, 2007
  18. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2007-09-28. Retrieved 2007-08-20.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) S.B. v. L.W. (Miss. Ct. App. 1999), Retrieved August 20, 2007
  19. ^ "On the Nomination (Confirmation Leslie Southwick, of Mississippi, to be U.S. Circuit Judge)".
  20. ^ Leslie H. Southwick at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a publication of the Federal Judicial Center.
  21. ^ Note, Recent Case: Fifth Circuit Holds Medical Board Investigators Are Protected by Qualified Immunity in Warrantless Search of Records, 132 Harv. L. Rev. 2042 (2019).
  22. ^ Zadeh v. Robinson, 902 F.3d 483 (5th Cir. 2018).

External links

Legal offices
Preceded by Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
2007–present 		Incumbent
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