by Askia Muhammad
White House Correspondent

WASHINGTON (FinalCall.com)�President George W. Bush�s nomination of a Mississippi federal trial judge to the 5th U.S. Court of Appeals has run into stiff opposition from dozens of civil rights, labor and women�s groups.

In a contentious, four-hour hearing in early February, Senate Democrats revealed that Charles W. Pickering, Sr. took unusual and possibly unethical steps to win a lighter sentence for a man convicted in his Jackson, Miss., court for burning a cross at the home of a mixed-race couple.

Just moments before the hearing began, the Justice Department turned over files compiled by the Clinton administration at the time of the 1994 cross-burning case. Those files showed that Judge Pickering was so upset about the seven-year mandatory minimum sentence recommended by prosecutors for 20-year-old Daniel Swan that he spoke against the recommendation in court, and then met privately with the prosecutors and threatened to order a new trial unless they agreed to a lesser sentence.

Mr. Swan was convicted of driving his pickup truck to the home of the couple where he joined two other men in burning an 8-foot-tall cross. Judge Pickering called Mr. Swan�s actions a "drunken prank," although he did condemn it as a "despicable act" that deserved some jail time.

"I thought there was a tremendous disparity," the judge said, because Mr. Swan�s co-defendant had pleaded guilty and was given a minimal sentence. When prosecutors refused to recommend a lesser sentence, the judge contacted a top Justice Department official in Washington and said that Attorney General Janet Reno should intervene.

Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.) read the judicial code of ethics that he said showed that making a one-on-one call between a judge and the Justice Department was forbidden. "Did you call?" Sen. Edwards asked Judge Pickering.

"Yes, I called," the judge replied, pointing out that he "had not considered (the call) a violation" and that his action was simply to "vent frustration."

Judge Pickering ended up imposing a 27-month sentence after the government agreed to drop one of three charges against Mr. Swan.

It was a rare second hearing in which committee Democrats accused Judge Pickering�the father of Mississippi Republican House Member Charles W. Pickering, Jr., and a close friend of Senate Republican Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.)�of displaying a troubling habit of substituting his own conservative opinions for the law in his 11 years on the bench. According to one broadcast report, a Democratic committee staff aide predicted that a third hearing may be necessary before the committee votes on the controversial nomination.

The 37-member Congressional Black Caucus unanimously opposed the nomination. The NAACP also denounced the nomination.

"Pickering stands so far outside the basic standards we expect on our courts, he must be rejected forthwith," said Julian Bond, chairman of the NAACP.

There was a second charge of a possible ethics violation leveled at the nominee. Judge Pickering acknowledged that he had asked local Mississippi lawyers, including those who argue cases in his court, to write letters to the Senate in support of his nomination. He said he collected the letters in his chambers, then faxed them to Washington.

Republicans on the committee defended the nominee and noted that he actively opposed the Ku Klux Klan in the 1960s, and sought to discredit his opponents. Judge Pickering also helped create the Institute of Racial Reconciliation at the University of Mississippi and hired the first Black political staffer for the Mississippi Republican Party in the 1970s.

His supporters argued that the nominee�s views had changed as the culture of the South had changed. They also produced several Black character references, including Charles Evers, a prominent Black GOP-member whose brother Medgar Evers was slain in 1963, when he was executive director of the state�s NAACP chapter.

"Judge Pickering was a locally elected prosecutor who took the stand ... and testified in the criminal trial against the Imperial Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, who was accused of firebombing a civil rights activist," Mr. Evers said in a statement. "(He) later lost his bid for re-election because he dared to defy the Klan, but he gained my respect and the respect of many others as a man who stands up for what is right."

When asked about Black support of the nomination, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) told reporters, "I�m sure somewhere a Judas will come out and support Pickering." Other critics questioned whether or not Mr. Pickering is the "reconstructed southerner" his supporters make him out to be.

The 5th Circuit covers Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas, and is home to more Black and Latino residents than any other federal circuit. It is also one of the most conservative appeals courts, and Democrats are still resentful of Republican confirmation-stalling tactics when Pres. Bill Clinton was in the White House. Republicans refused to hold hearings on three of Mr. Clinton�s nominees to the 5th Circuit. One of them was Black; the other two were prominent Latino lawyers.