Judge Pickering's past
A BOSTON GLOBE EDITORIAL
2/9/2002
T HE COUNTRY STUMBLES when a president points to a
relic of a man and says he should be a high-court judge.
Nonetheless, President Bush nominated US District Judge
Charles Pickering of Mississippi to join the US Court of
Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans.
Trace Pickering's legal roots to 1959 and one finds an article
he wrote as a law student advising the Mississippi Legislature
how to close a loophole so the state could better punish people
in interracial marriages.
Sadly, even if this article is dismissed as old or just an
academic exercise, there are still decades of legal thinking that
make Pickering the wrong choice for circuit court judge.
In the 1970s, when the country was putting the Voting Rights
Act to work to empower black voters, Pickering was a state
senator who voted for redistricting plans that diluted the power
of black votes.
During the 1990s, when he was a district court judge,
Pickering seemed annoyed by the doctrine of one person, one
vote, which calls for election districts to have roughly equal
populations. One person, one vote helps groups of voters have
all the political power to which they're entitled. The Supreme
Court had ruled that deviations of more than 16.4 percent are
unconstitutional. But when Pickering was faced with a
deviation of 25 percent, he seemed unconcerned. Commenting
in ''dicta'' - editorial comments from judges that set no legal
precedent - Pickering called the high percentage ''relatively
minor.''
Pickering's decisions were reversed 15 times by the Court of
Appeals because he violated settled principles of law.
He has scolded plaintiffs, repeatedly saying that employees can
be too quick to cry discrimination when they have simply failed
to do their jobs well. This is a problem, but the caseload of the
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission shows that
workplace discrimination is the more corrosive issue.
Unfortunately, hundreds of Pickering's opinions are no longer
available, so the Senate can only review an incomplete record.
Pickering does have supporters. Henry Naylor - a black city
councilor in Hattiesburg, Miss. - wrote to Senator Patrick
Leahy, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and said: ''Judge
Pickering has received much praise from local and state
African-American leaders who can attest to his commitment to
being fair toward all citizens.''
Pickering is also a member of the executive committee of the
Institute for Racial Reconciliation at the University of
Mississippi.
It's nice to be reassured that Pickering and black people can
get along. What's missing is reassurance that Pickering is the
kind of judge who will move America's great progress on
equality forward. That's why the Senate Judiciary Committee
should not approve him.
This story ran on page A14 of the Boston Globe on 2/9/2002.
© Copyright 2002 Globe Newspaper Company.
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