Recently George W. Bush re-nominated Judge Charles W. Pickering Sr. of Mississippi for a post on the federal appeals court. Judge Pickering has been nominated in the past and was always blocked from election. Here are some Facts about Judge Pickering:
-Pickering displayed "glaring racial insensitivity" according to Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY), during his handling of a 1994 cross burning case. Pickering had sought a lighter sentence in a case where a Ku Klux Klan cross was burned on the lawn belonging to an interracial couple.
-In 1959, for instance, he wrote an article for the Mississippi Law Review ("Criminal Law: Miscegenation and Incest") where he listed ways in which the state's laws against interracial marriage could be strengthened. "Within months of the article being published," wrote journalist Richard Prasad, "the Mississippi Legislature adopted the changes advocated by Pickering."
-While a Mississippi state senator (1972-80), Pickering voted twice to fund the Sovereignty Commission, a state-funded intelligence agency that fought integration by infiltrating civil rights and labor groups.
-In 1976, while still a member of the Mississippi senate, Pickering served as chairman of the Human Rights and Responsibilities Subcommittee of the National GOP Platform Committee that approved language in the final platform document describing ROE v. WADE as "an intrusion into the family structure." The Subcommittee also called for passage of a "right to life amendment" to overturn the crucial Supreme Court decision which guaranteed abortion rights for women.
-Addressing the Convention's 1984 gathering, Pickering opined that the Bible should be "recognized as the absolute authority by which all conduct of man is judged." (Charles W. Pickering, "God Will Hold Us Accountable," Mississippi Baptist Record, November 29, 1984).
-The Clarion-Ledger newspaper (November 13, 1984) reported that Pickering "called on Baptists to be about 'God's work' in helping to influence morality. '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."
-"He is a fine person," observed one lawyer, "but he's also almost so pious that it interferes with his assignment as a judge. If he doesn't like a law, he has some trouble in cases that involve the law." (Vol. 1, "Almanac of the Federal Judiciary," Fifth Circuit, at 46 - 2001)
-Critics have said that these stern, dogmatic religious views clearly affect Pickering's performance and temperament on the bench. The group "Independent Judiciary" noted that lawyers who had argued cases before Judge Pickering noted that he made "unusually blunt statements" about everything from racial matters to the need for defendants to embrace religion.
-Critics point out that he has made disparaging remarks about even basic constitutional doctrines such as one person-one vote, and the Voting Rights Act. Civil Libertarians worry that he has criticized the Miranda ruling, and has appealed to Biblical authority and "natural law" in his pronouncements. For Atheists and state-church separationists, Pickering's stern, Old Testament-style lecturing of defendants, his authoritarian adherence to the supremacy of the Bible as an arbiter in human affairs, and his hostility to the strict enforcement of the Establishment Clause render him a poor choice for such an important federal judicial post.
Even if you are a Christian and believe in the Bible, this is far too extreme. The Bible should not be used to decide court cases! This guy is a racist, a sexist, a homophobe and worst of all an anti-constitutionalist! I encourage everyone to get in contact with their elected officials and encourage them to vote against Judge Pickering's appointment on the grounds of his racist and anti-American views.
You can go to
http://www.senate.gov/ and choose your state. Most of the senators have email addresses listed, so you can fire off a quick email. Heck, copy and paste and send it to senators of surrounding states, too! You can find your State Reps at
http://www.house.gov/ as well. It's rare that we know someone is a slimeball before they get to a position of power... we should try to do SOMETHING to prevent it!
