BUSH's IDEA OF A FAIR JUDGE. Via Matt , an excellent summary of the record of Leslie Southwick , the latest Bush Circuit Court nominee whose primary qualification is a slavish devotion to business interests. Particularly remarkable is the case of Richmond v. Mississippi Dep't of Human Services, in which the Court of Appeals of Mississippi (in an opinion joined by Southwick) upheld the state's decision to overrule a Department of Human Services decision to fire an employee who used a racial slur against another employee. The state's decision is subject to review, and cannot be "arbitrary or capricious." So what were the findings that justified overriding the decision of DHS? As the dissent notes, here was the argument: (1) DHS overreacted; (2) the remark was made in an open meeting with an atmosphere of give and take; (3) the term "good ole nigger" was not a racial slur; (4) calling Varrie Richmond a "good ole nigger" was equivalent to calling her "teacher's pet." Arguing that these...

IT'S ALRIGHT MR. KENNEDY, MY UTERUS IS ONLY BLEEDING. Marty Lederman points us to an interesting WaPo article , in which a few members of America's tiny minority of serious, principled "pro-lifers" have come to see that "Partial Birth" bans are silly, irrational laws whose primary purpose is to separate money from their wallets and funnel it to the Republican Party. Focus on the Family, however, maintains that the bans do have an upside: the law does increase the "danger of internal bleeding from a perforated uterus." If you don't believe me that most of the American forced pregnancy lobby cares a great deal more about punishing women for sexual choices they don't approve of than protecting fetal life, well, I say we take their word for it. And, again, this explains the sexism in Kennedy 's opinion ; you take it away, and the legislation has no connection with a legitimate state interest at all . As you can see, most anti-choicers (despite the bad-faith congressional findings that 2+2...