Following today's Senate confirmation of Judge Leslie Southwick to the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Lara Schwartz, the HRC's legal director and chief legislative counsel, weighed in on how Southwick's lifetime appointment to this key appeals court will affect real lives for years to come: (Link to original)
Justice Felix Frankfurter wrote that "there comes a point where this Court should not be ignorant as judges of what we know as men."
It is a principle that ought to guide any good judge, and indeed, any decision maker.
Today the United States Senate granted a lifetime judicial appointment to someone who either doesn’t know much as a man, or simply forgets it when he dons a robe.
Judge Leslie Southwick participated in a ruling that took an 8-year-old child away from her mother due in part to the mother’s sexual orientation. He joined a concurring opinion fraught with slurs and misinformation about gay people. In fact, the opinion does not even go so far as to acknowledge that there are "gay people," but rather refers again and again to homosexual lifestyle and sexual practices. And then, quite breezily, the opinion states that while the mother is entitled to her "choice" of "lifestyle," she must understand that losing her child is a possible consequence.
It is written so casually and with such understatement that I did a double-take. Did a judge really write this? Who on Earth could be so callous?
Everyone knows—everyone—that separating a child from its mother is among the most devastating acts that can happen to either party. Everyone knows that such decisions are heart-rending regardless of the merits. But this opinion projects ignorance of that basic fact.
So the question is—is Judge Leslie Southwick the only person in the world who doesn’t comprehend the enormity of what he did, or does he just not care?
Unfortunately, we will have years—possibly decades—of decisions that might shed light on his personal and judicial philosophy, because the United States Senate gave him a lifetime appointment today.
Fifty-nine senators, including some who have in the past been supporters of GLBT equality, voted to reward Leslie Southwick’s performance with a seat on the nation’s second highest court.
Every one of them knew about the decision he had made.
Every last one.
We told them.
We called them.
We lobbied them.
Make no mistake—they knew.
And they gave Southwick the job.
Now, there are many anti-GLBT villains out there who have rightfully earned the community’s contempt for the outlandish things they have said in the public square and even on the Senate floor. Rick Santorum is a sterling example.
But today 59 senators did something more significant than hurl harsh words: they endorsed and rewarded the following opinion: you can lose your child because you’re gay.
None of them said that. All they had to do was say "aye," and head to the next item on the Senate calendar. How easy. How casual.
Whether any of those senators put him or herself into the shoes of a GLBT parent, I cannot tell. I refuse to believe that usual supporters of GLBT rights are ignorant of the importance of the parent-child relationship, or unaware of the millions of happy children being raised by gay people in this country.
Today they demonstrated ignorance as senators of what they know as people.
How deeply unfortunate for all of us.