At Southwick's confirmation hearing, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., asked him to give
an example of an unpopular decision he'd made in favor of somebody downtrodden—a
poor person, or a member of a minority group, or someone who'd simply turned to
the courts for help. Judge Southwick couldn't name a single one.
The question
might sound like a bit of a stunt. But other data show that Judge Southwick's
answer fits with his larger record. He has a pattern of voting against workers
and the injured and in favor of corporations. According to the advocacy group
Alliance for Justice, Southwick voted "against the injured party and in favor of
business interests" in 160 of 180 cases that gave rise to a dissent and that
involved employment law and injury-based suits for damages. When one judge on a
panel dissents in a case, there's an argument it could come out either way,
which makes these cases a good measure of how a judge thinks when he's got some
legal leeway. In such cases, Judge Southwick almost never favors the rights of
workers or people who've suffered discrimination or been harmed by a shoddy
product.
Looks like a new judge battle is set to be waged over Bush's nomination of Southwick.
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