WASHINGTON — The Lexington woman who was at the
center of a nationally watched sexual harassment case says she is
outraged the judge who ruled against her is being considered for the
U.S. Supreme Court.
Judge Karen Williams of Orangeburg, who sits on the 4th U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals, is on many short lists for the nomination
President Bush is expected to make as soon as Monday.
Williams is the enthusiastic bipartisan choice of two S.C.
lawmakers who often disagree — Republican U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham
and Democratic U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn.
But Lisa Ocheltree is writing to Graham and President Bush to
oppose Williams, who, she said, showed no sympathy for the plight of
a blue-collar worker trying to keep her dignity on the job.
“It would be a kick in the butt for a lot of women,” Ocheltree
said. “When I heard she could be nominated, I was outraged.”
Court watchers say Williams, 54, has a chance to be nominated,
but must rise above a reputation in some legal circles for a
conservatism that lacks compassion, particularly toward women and
blacks.
The NAACP, for instance, after a preliminary review, called her
record “troubling.”
However, many in South Carolina defend Williams as an excellent
choice who has been unfairly charged. And in the past few days,
Williams’ name — once one of many Bush was speculated to be
considering — has been mentioned with increasing frequency, both in
news reports and the halls of Congress.
Clyburn, the former chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus,
said he “would be thrilled” if Williams were confirmed to the
Supreme Court.
“I would certainly do whatever I can to make that happen,” said
the Columbia congressman whose district includes Williams’ hometown.
“She would do our state proud and herself proud.”
Williams’ appeal to the White House is manifold. Her judicial
philosophy is in line with the president’s. For 13 years, she has
sat on a court just one level below the Supreme Court. And Bush has
hinted he would prefer a woman to replace retiring Justice Sandra
Day O’Connor, one of two women on the nine-member high court.
But Ocheltree said she has experienced first-hand what she called
Williams’ callousness toward women.
Williams in 1999 was part of a three-judge panel of the 4th
Circuit that overturned a jury’s decision in Ocheltree’s favor in
the case of Ocheltree v. Scollon Productions Inc.
Ocheltree, now 44, and a clerk for United Parcel Service, had
sued Scollon, the White Rock company that makes the “Cocky” costume
for USC’s mascot.
She said the men she worked with at the company repeatedly
subjected her to crude sexual comments, and she was fired because
she complained.
Scollon officials said they let her go because of excessive
absenteeism and other problems that had nothing to do with her
complaints about co-workers.
Williams wrote the three-member panel’s decision. She concluded
the law doesn’t protect women from “everyday insults as if they
remained models of Victorian reticence.”
When the full 4th Circuit Court considered Ocheltree’s case, it
reversed Williams, their colleague, 10-2.
Ocheltree, who found out late last week that Williams is a
possible Supreme Court nominee, said she wishes she could have met
the judge in person.
“She would see I’m not sensitive. She would see that I can handle
a dirty joke,” Ocheltree said. “That wasn’t what we were talking
about.”
‘SHE’S THE BEST OF THE CROWD’
Clyburn has met Williams; he has dined in her home and seen her
and her husband, attorney Charles H. Williams III, on other social
occasions.
“I think very well of her,” Clyburn said. “Her husband is a good
friend.”
Williams is considered one of the most conservative judges on the
most conservative of the nation’s 12 appeals courts.
But she married into a family of Democrats. Her father-in-law was
the late state Sen. Marshall Williams, D-Orangeburg. Charles
Williams has given generously to many Democratic candidates,
including $2,000 to state Superintendent of Education Inez Tenenbaum
when she ran for the U.S. Senate last year.
Federal campaign finance records show Charles Williams has not
given to Clyburn’s campaigns. Those records also show Karen Williams
has made no campaign contributions.
Through her clerk, Judge Williams has declined to speak to
reporters.
Her record as a judge is widely available. An initial assessment
displeases the National Association for the Advancement of Colored
People.
“We have found some things that raise red flags,” said Hilary
Shelton, director of the NAACP’s Washington office. “There are
troubling issues not only regarding discrimination based on gender,
but there appears to be an insensitivity toward plaintiffs in racial
(employment) discrimination cases.”
For critics one red flag arose in 1999, when Williams wrote the
4th Circuit opinion that would have opened the door to overturning
the storied “Miranda” ruling, which requires police to advise
suspects of their legal rights. The Supreme Court quashed that
decision, declaring Miranda would remain the law of the land.
Shelton said Clyburn may not have had a chance to review
Williams’ decisions and might not endorse her so heartily if he
had.
“I don’t say I agree with every one of her decisions,” Clyburn
responded. “I don’t agree with every one of my wife’s decisions.
“But of all the possibilities I’ve heard, she’s the best of the
crowd.”
Reach Markoe at (202) 383-6023 or lmarkoe@krwashington.com
