Leslie H. Southwick

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Leslie H. Southwick (born February 10, 1950 in Edinburg, Texas) is a current nominee to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and a former judge of the Mississippi Court of Appeals.

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[edit] Federal nominations

Southwick was nominated on January 9, 2007 by President George W. Bush to fill a seat on the Fifth Circuit vacated by Judge Charles W. Pickering, who retired at the end of 2004. Previously, Bush had nominated Mississippi attorney Michael Wallace to that vacancy, but that nomination stalled in the 109th Congress due to opposition from Senate Democrats. Upon the Democratic takeover of Congress in the November 2006 elections, Wallace asked President Bush not to re-nominate him in the 110th Congress.

Finding itself without a nominee to a judgeship that had already sat vacant for two years, the White House turned to Southwick, then a nominee to a position on the United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi. Bush had nominated him on June 9, 2006 to fill a vacancy on that court left by retired judge William H. Barbour, Jr.. Southwick had a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on September 19, 2006 and was reported favorably to the floor of the Senate by the Committee on September 29, 2006. However, Southwick, like many judicial nominees, failed to receive a vote by the full Senate before the 109th Congress adjourned for good on December 9, 2006. Pursuant to Senate rules of procedure, his nomination was returned to the President.

Southwick's successive federal nominations, within seven months of each other, though unusual, are not unheard of. For another example of the White House elevating a federal district nominee to a Circuit Court, see Judge Jerome A. Holmes of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit.

[edit] Judicial experience and professional career

Southwick was elected one of the first ten judges of the Mississippi Court of Appeals in 1994. He remained on the court until the end of 2006 when, with a nomination to a lifetime position in the federal judiciary pending, he did not run for re-election. Southwick was a on a leave of absence from the court from August 2004 to January 2006. In 2005, he served in Iraq as a Judge Advocate General with the 155th Brigade Combat Team of the U.S. Army.

Southwick was in private practice as an attorney in Jackson, Mississippi from 1977-1989. In 1989, Southwick entered government service as a Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the United States Department of Justice Civil Division. There he supervised the one hundred and twenty-five lawyers of the Federal Programs Branch, which defends suits brought against the United States. He also supervised the Office of Consumer Litigation, a twenty-five lawyer division charged with civil and criminal enforcement of federal consumer laws.

Southwick also teaches law as an adjunct professor at the Mississippi College, and he is a member of the American Inns of Court, Charles Clark Chapter.

[edit] Education and clerkships

Southwick, a native Texan, graduated cum laude with a B.A. from Rice University in 1972 and earned his J.D. from the University of Texas School of Law in 1975. Following law school, Southwick clerked for the Presiding Judge, John F. Onion, Jr., of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals from 1975-1976, and then for Judge Charles Clark on the Fifth Circuit from 1976-1977.

[edit] Personal

Southwick is married and has two children. He is Roman Catholic.

[edit] Works by Southwick

  • Presidential Also-Rans & Running Mates, 1788-1996. Published by McFarland & Co., Jefferson, N.C., 1998 (2d edition)

[edit] External links

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