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Pickering: Judges shouldn’t legislate
2006 02 20

Pickering: Judges shouldn’t legislate
By Nikki Davis Maute

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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Pickering Shares Confirmation Experience
2006 02 20

Pickering Shares Confirmation Experience
Ellisville, Miss.
Pamela Weaver, WDAM-TV

Judge Charles Pickering was appointed to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in a recess appointment by President Bush, after years of battling senators over his confirmation. Pickering has now written a book about his experience.

At Jones County Junior College in Ellisville, Miss., Judge Charles Pickering offered powerful insight into his fight for judicial confirmation.

“I think Christians don’t realize what this battle is all about. I think that a lot of people will find it to be an eye opener,” said Pickering.

Pickering released “Supreme Chaos,” his thoughts and ideals on what is wrong with the entire judicial confirmation process, and he touches on what he believes was a crusade against his appointment.

“You didn’t like to have other people think things about you that are not good. You know, the political people, there was nothing I could do. They were going to say ugly things and they were going to think what they think, but it’s the average American that heard those stories and believed them, particularly the African-American community,” said Pickering.

“Supreme Chaos” is just the tip of the iceberg. The former Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals judge says his next book will offer more of his personal opinions and feelings about senators who tried to smear his name.

“One of the things people ask me, ‘Did it not bother you that people were saying things about you that were not true?’ My response was it would have bothered me a lot more if they had been true,” Pickering said. “We’re involved in a cultural war. It is a war for the heart, souls, and minds of the American people.”

Pickering’s next book is due out sometime between October 2006 and March 2007.

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Process is ‘broken,’ Pickering tells students
2006 02 17

Process is ‘broken,’ Pickering tells students

ELLISVILLE – Retired federal appeals court Judge Charles Pickering signed autographs of his book, “Supreme Chaos: The Politics of Judicial Confirmation & the Culture War,” at Jones Junior College this morning.

Pickering, who is from Jones County, was unable to talk about his bitter fight for confirmation to the federal bench while he was a nominee. He is talking now.

“The book is about the confirmation process and how it has degenerated into a bitter, mean-spirited and highly partisan process that is broken,” Pickering said during a lecture to students before signing books.

Pickering’s 2001 nomination to the bench by President Bush was defeated by a filibuster on the U.S. Senate floor led by Democrats who accused Pickering of racial insensitivity. Several special-interest groups – from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People to the American Association of University Women – criticized his judicial record.

Bush appointed Pickering to the appeals court in January 2004 after Congress recessed, which allowed him to serve until the 2005 Congress. He was forced into retirement in December 2004 when the Senate failed to confirm his nomination to the life-time position.

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Originally published February 17, 2006
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Supreme Chaos Reviewed by Townhall.com
2006 02 08

Judicial Confirmation and the ‘Mystery Constitution’
A review of Judge Charles Pickering’s Supreme Chaos

Feb 6, 2006
Review by Judith Niewiadomski

Many Americans have looked at the judicial confirmation process, the vicious disparagement of exceptional men and women who have given their lives to public service, and wondered in dismay, “How did it come to this?”  Supreme Chaos answers that question, and offers some solutions to bringing back the Constitutional standard.

Supreme Chaos could only have been written by someone who, like our Founders, loves and understands the right of self-government and the rule of law and principle; it should be read by everyone who wants to do the same.  Supreme Chaos should be part of every home library and used as a text in every government and citizenship class.  The US Constitution was written by thoughtful men who loved and understood legal principle and the right of self-government and articulated it for ordinary citizens could understand.  So also is Supreme Chaos.  It is as easy to read as a newspaper—and more logical, tracing the history of Constitutional thought and principle to demonstrate clearly what our Founders intended and how those principles should be applied.

Judge Pickering tells the story as only one who has survived the strife of ideologues could, but it is more than his personal story.  It is the compelling story of our unique political compact at risk because of partisan ideologues who have forgotten that our Constitution was the result of months of debate and negotiation among the best legal, economic and political minds of the time, by men determined to keep power in the hands of the people, who considered deeply the implications for posterity.  They wrote our Constitution to limit the power of government by keeping any one branch (not party) from gaining too much power. 

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Supreme Chaos Review in Christian Science Monitor
2006 02 07

No better way to pick a justice?
Charles Pickering’s critique of our judicial nomination process.
By Seth Stern

Samuel A. Alito Jr.‘s confirmation to the Supreme Court ends the latest round of the judicial nominations war, and neither Democrats nor Republicans come out looking particularly good.

The most memorable image from Alito’s confirmation hearings was his wife walking out of the room in tears. Conservatives blamed Democrats’ viciousness, conveniently forgetting their own attacks against Harriet Miers last fall.

Few people are better positioned to write about the judicial confirmation meat grinder than Charles Pickering. In 2003, Senate Democrats filibustered his nomination to a seat on the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

After a temporary recess appointment to the court, Pickering returned home to Mississippi in 2005. The result is Supreme Chaos, in which he sets out to explain what’s wrong with the process - and to settle some scores.

Pickering lashes back at the liberal interest groups and Democratic senators he holds responsible for his defeat. He describes himself as “cannon fodder,” and contends that liberal groups opposed him because of his strong religious beliefs and charges that he held racist views.

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WDAM News 7 Pickering: Judicial battles stem from culture war
2006 02 02

Pickering: Judicial battles stem from culture war
Feb 1, 2006, 04:52 PM

Former Federal Judge Charles Pickering of the Hebron community in Jones County has written a new book about the judicial confirmation process and how he thinks it can be improved.

Pickering writes from firsthand experience after his own difficult fight for confirmation to the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. President Bush finally elevated him to that court in a recess appointment after Senate Democrats blocked his nomination.

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