Pickering: Judges shouldn't legislate

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Pickering: Judges shouldn't legislate

By Nikki Davis Maute, Hattiesburg American (Hattiesburg, Mississippi), February 18, 2006

ELLISVILLE - Retired federal Judge Charles Pickering said Friday he believes the U.S. Constitution should be amended so judges cannot "legislate from the bench."

"This way judges could not change, alter or add to our Constitution," Pickering, 68, told students and faculty during an appearance on the Jones County Junior College campus.

”Now judges are legislating from the bench and we have a mystery Constitution," he said.

Pickering was on campus to discuss his new book, "Supreme Chaos: The Politics of Judicial Confirmation and the Culture War," about his failed nomination to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

More than 400 students and faculty attended the talk by Pickering, a JCJC alumnus. Some students said they attended the judge's talk as a class requirement.

Pamela Boyles, 42, a nursing student from Laurel, waited for Pickering to sign her copy of his book. She said she wanted to hear the judge's side of what happened during his confirmation process.

"I'd heard the news media's side, and I wanted to hear what he had to say and I was impressed," Boyles said. "What he says makes sense."

Efia Mentuhoptep, 18, a sophomore from Pachuta, said she agrees that there needs to be a better process to confirm judges. But, she said, she didn't realize the judge was as politically conservative as he is.

Pickering's 2001 nomination by President Bush to a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals was defeated by a filibuster on the U.S. Senate floor led by Democrats who accused Pickering of racial insensitivity,

So while Congress was in recess in January 2004, Bush appointed Pickering again to the court - allowing him to serve until that December when the Senate failed to confirm his nomination.

Pickering outlines solutions to the confirmation process in "Supreme Chaos." He said he expects to expand on those solutions in his next book due early next year.

Pickering said he's not decided on a name for the new book.

"Supreme Chaos" describes the judicial confirmation process as a bitter, mean-spirited and highly partisan process.

The book carefully documents the history of the recent fights on Capitol Hill over federal judges.

Pickering details how his confirmation split the Senate into two camps: Democrats who said he is a conservative activist unfit for the bench and Republicans who argued he was an experienced and fair jurist.

"We have to find a way out of this quagmire where there is no civility for the sake of the judiciary, our children and grandchildren, and the rights of all Americans," Pickering said.

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