On Friday, President Bush appointed Charles Pickering to become a federal judge in the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. Bush first nominated Pickering in May 2001 but Congress refused to appoint him. Civil rights and women’s groups led the opposition to Pickering. We’ll have more on this later in the show. He once lobbied the Justice Department to reduce the sentence of a man convicted of burning a cross on the lawn of an interracial couple. Critics said he backed laws barring interracial marriage and had ties to segregationist groups.