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Obama Statement on the Nomination of Judge Southwick for the U.S. Appeals Court

Monday, July 23, 2007

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Ben LaBolt

WASHINGTON, DC -- U.S. Senator Barack Obama (D-IL), who previously announced his opposition to the elevation of Judge Southwick to the U.S. Court of Appeals, today released the following statement:

"The nation has just witnessed how quickly settled law can change when activist judges are confirmed. In decisions covering employment discrimination to school integration, the Roberts-Alito Supreme Court has turned back the clock on decades of hard-fought civil rights progress. Judge Southwick's answers to the Senate Judiciary Committee failed to excuse his disappointing record on cases involving consumers, employees, racial minorities, women and gays and lesbians. After reviewing his 7,000 opinions, Judge Southwick could not find one case in which he sided with a civil rights plaintiff in a non-unanimous verdict. I urge the President to nominate a jurist with the demonstrated capacity to provide all Americans with a fair hearing."