On Jan. 7, President George W. Bush turned a blind eye to the lessons learned from the recent controversy caused by Sen. Trent Lott’s (R-Miss.) remarks about the South’s segregationist past and renominated a group of ultra-conservative appointees to the federal courts that included Charles Pickering and other nominees with troubling records on civil rights, workers’ rights and other fundamental protections.

Pickering and another nominee to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Priscilla Owen, were defeated on a 10-9 vote last year by the Senate Judiciary Committee because of concerns over their records. In Pickering’s case, senators were troubled by his record as a federal district judge in discrimination cases, which rarely favored workers, and by his unusual efforts to reduce the sentence of a man convicted of burning a cross on an inter-racial couple’s lawn. With Owen, senators were concerned about her record as a Texas Supreme Court justice, which revealed a disturbing pattern of conservative judicial activism and hostility to the claims of workers and consumers.

“Justice Owen’s opinions reveal a troubling hostility to discrimination and employee rights, reproductive rights, public information rights, environmental protection and consumer and citizen rights,” a coalition of more than two-dozen civil rights, labor, women’s and consumer groups said in a letter protesting the nomination.

Civil rights groups immediately slammed Bush’s choice of Pickering and Owen and others of the 31 nominees to various federal judgeships that Bush submitted.

Wade Henderson, executive director of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, said the nomination of candidates with such troubling civil rights records sharply contrasts with Bush’s public statements on civil rights.

“The two faces of the White House have never been more at odds,” he said.     

Pickering’s renomination follows the huge controversy in December over former Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott’s praise of former Sen. Strom Thurmond’s (R-S.C.) 1948 presidential campaign on a segregationist platform. Public outrage over Lott’s comments forced him to step down as his party’s Senate leader.

“Unfortunately, they have not learned from the Trent Lott episodes and I am going to do everything I can to stop the Pickering nomination from going forward,” said Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.).

After the fallout from Lott’s remarks, Bush and other Republican leaders tried to stem criticism of the party’s civil rights and race relations record with speeches and events taking Lott to task for his remarks.

“Given the encouraging rhetoric of this administration on civil rights over the last few weeks, it’s astonishing that when it’s time to match rhetoric with real action, they nominate Charles Pickering to serve on the second highest court in the nation,” said Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.).

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Read America@work’s coverage of Bush’s drive to pack the federal courts with extremists.

Learn more about why the federal courts and judicial appointments are so important.

Check the Bush record in BushWatch.

Find out more on Issues & Politics.

Learn about the judicial selection process.