G. Harrold Carswell
In 1953, he was appointed United States Attorney for the Northern District of Florida by President Dwight D. Eisenhower; Carswell served in this position until 1958.[3] Carswell was nominated by President Richard Nixon on May 12, 1969, to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, to a new seat authorized by 82 Stat.[3] On January 19, 1970, President Nixon nominated Carswell to be an associate justice of the United States Supreme Court to replace Abe Fortas, who had resigned in May 1969.Before they began, however, the press uncovered a speech delivered by Carswell during his unsuccessful Georgia legislative bid in 1948 that espoused the principles of white supremacy.[7] In the August 2, 1948 speech to the American Legion chapter at Gordon, Georgia, he said: I am Southern by ancestry, birth, training, inclination, belief and practice.U.S. Attorney General John Mitchell, citing an extensive background check by the Justice Department, was willing to forgive, stating that it was unfair to criticize Carswell for "political remarks made 22 years ago".[9] Other issues regarding Carswell's civil rights record soon also came to light, such as his being involved in turning a public golf course into a segregated private club in Tallahassee, Florida, signing a deed to property which contained a racially restrictive covenant and prolonging the duration of a school desegregation case from 1963 to 1967."[6] Senator George McGovern of South Dakota said of Carswell, "I find his record to be distinguished largely by two qualities: racism and mediocrity.[15] Despite the testimony given about his civil rights record, on February 16, 1970, the Judiciary Committee voted 13–4 to forward the nomination to the full Senate with a favorable recommendation.I understand the bitter feelings of millions of Americans who live in the South about the act of regional discrimination that took place in the Senate yesterday.Expecting to benefit politically in Florida from the rejection of Judge Carswell to the Supreme Court, aides of either Governor Claude R. Kirk, Jr., or U.S.[20] Carswell said that he ran for the Senate because he wanted to "confront the liberals who shot me down" but denied that Kirk took advantage of the failed confirmation to thwart Cramer.[22] Carswell further secured endorsements from actors John Wayne and Gene Autry and retained Richard Viguerie, the direct mail specialist from Falls Church, Virginia, to raise funds.