President Bush has rebuffed a Democratic suggestion that he withdraw one of his appellate court nominations, despite the certainty that the Senate Judiciary Committee will reject the nomination.

The standoff is rekindling partisan battles over judicial nominations, which died down after a group of senators struck a deal two years ago to avoid a parliamentary showdown over the issue.

Now, however, with Democrats in charge of the Senate and less than two years left in his presidency, Bush has little leverage to move through the Senate nominees who face serious opposition.

Bush nominated Leslie Southwick to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit this year, after two of his earlier nominees did not win Senate confirmation in several previous Congresses. But a bevy of liberal and environmental activists and unions is opposed to Southwick for a variety of reasons.

Last week, Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick J. Leahy, D-Vt., suggested that Bush withdraw Southwick’s nomination and instead nominate an African-American candidate and name Southwick to a district court seat.

“Mississippi has never had an African-American on the circuit even though it has the largest African-American population of any state,” Leahy said.

The senator said White House counsel Fred F. Fielding told him June 13 that Bush will not follow Leahy’s advice.

According to both Leahy and Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, the ranking Republican on the panel, a majority of the committee is against Southwick’s nomination for the 5th Circuit.

Specter asked Leahy on Thursday to postpone a committee vote for the third time so Specter could continue to lobby Democrats. Leahy agreed.

Specter also has suggested that the panel send the nomination to the floor, even with an unfavorable recommendation, rather than reject it outright. Leahy said that won’t happen.

Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) Chairwoman Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, D-Mich., and another CBC member, Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, appeared in the committee room to buttonhole Democrats before the meeting Thursday. They sat in the audience until Leahy postponed the planned vote.

Liberal activists have raised objections to Southwick, a former Mississippi state appeals court judge, because of several rulings he joined or dissented from on the state bench.

One decision upheld the reinstatement of a social worker who used a racial epithet to describe a colleague.

“I don’t think Americans support that kind of acceptance of a racial slur,” Green said.

In another case, Southwick joined a ruling against a bisexual mother in a child custody case.

In a June 13 letter to Leahy, a coalition of environmental groups registered their opposition, pointing to what they said was evidence in Southwick’s record that he is too conservative and too pro-business to be confirmed to the 5th Circuit.

Bush has been trying to fill the same 5th Circuit seat since 2001, when he nominated Charles W. Pickering Sr. The next year, a Democratic-controlled Judiciary Committee rejected Pickering’s nomination.

Democrats filibustered Pickering in the 108th Congress. In early 2004, Bush gave Pickering a recess appointment, which lasted until the end of that Congress.

In the 109th Congress, Bush tapped Michael Wallace for the seat. The American Bar Association rated Wallace “not qualified” for the position, and the Senate did not vote on his nomination.

After Bush nominated Southwick to a Mississippi district court seat, he became part of a package of district court picks readied for floor action near the end of the 109th Congress. But the Senate did not vote on the package after Sam Brownback, R-Kan., blocked another nominee in the group, Janet T. Neff, whom Bush had nominated to a Michigan district court. Bush renominated Neff this year, and the Judiciary Committee approved her nomination last month.

Thad Cochran, R-Miss., strongly supports Southwick. “He’s one of the finest lawyers in the state of Mississippi, and it’s pure partisan politics at its worst,” Cochran said.

Seth Stern contributed to this story.