Washington ? In an election-year slap at filibustering Democrats, President Bush sidestepped Congress on Friday and installed Mississippi Judge Charles Pickering to the federal appeals court after a two-year battle filled with racial, religious and regional argument.

Bush elevated Pickering by recess appointment, simply putting him in office while Congress was out of session. Such appointments, bypassing confirmation, are valid until the next Congress takes office, in this case in January 2005.

Bush’s action will re-ignite the battle between Republicans and Democrats over the direction of the federal courts, a fight already sure to be intense this year because of the presidential election.

If not confirmed by the Senate before the end of the year, Pickering probably would retire, supporters suggested.

Pickering, a 66-year-old federal trial judge whom Bush nominated for a seat on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, has been waiting for two years for confirmation. But Democrats repeatedly have blocked Republican efforts to bring the nomination to a vote in the Senate.

“I’m grateful to the president for his continued confidence and support,” Pickering told The Associated Press from his home in Mississippi. “I look forward to serving on the 5th Circuit.”

He took the oath of office Friday night at the U.S. District Courthouse in Jackson, Miss.

Democrats have accused Pickering of supporting segregation as a young man, and promoting anti-abortion and anti-voting rights views as a state lawmaker.

Bush said Pickering would have been confirmed if his nomination had been brought to a vote. “But a minority of Democratic senators has been using unprecedented obstructionist tactics to prevent him and other qualified individuals from receiving up-or-down votes.

He said the Senate should “stop playing politics with the American judicial system.”

The Democrats can be expected to use the appointment to try to paint Bush as insensitive to minorities during the election campaign.

“The president’s recess appointment of this anti-civil rights judge the day after laying a wreath on the grave of Martin Luther King is an insult to Dr. King, an insult to every African-American, and an insult to all Americans who share Dr. King’s great goals,” said Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass. “It serves only to emphasize again this administration’s shameful opposition to civil rights.”

Republicans in turn have accused Democrats of being religiously biased against Bush’s anti-abortion nominees. They also have accused the Democrats of being biased against Southerners.

Pickering has strongly denied allegations of racial insensitivity.

“For 25 years I have strongly advocated that African-Americans and whites should sit down and talk in a positive and constructive manner to try to promote better understanding. This I’ve done,” Pickering said after a meeting with the Mississippi Black Caucus last year.

The Republicans acknowledged Friday that Bush’s action would make it harder to get Pickering and perhaps other judicial nominees through the Senate, which has 51 Republicans, 48 Democrats and one independent. But “it’s hard to know how it could be worse than it is now,” said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Pickering was a better choice than the other blocked nominees for a recess appointment because of his age, said Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz. “Judge Pickering has a long and distinguished career,” Kyl said. Serving on the “5th Circuit would be a wonderful capstone for his career if he is not made permanent.”

Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., said he would continue to try to win a permanent position for the judge. “The unwavering determination that Judge Pickering has displayed in the face of these unfair and now discredited attacks shows all the more what an outstanding individual he is,” Lott said.

The 5th Circuit handles appeals from Mississippi, Texas and Louisiana, and the federal judges on that circuit have been trailblazers on desegregation and voting rights.

Democrats have used the threat of a filibuster to block six U.S. Appeals Court nominees this congressional term: Pickering, Alabama Atty. Gen. William Pryor, Texas Judge Priscilla Owen, Hispanic lawyer Miguel Estrada and California Judges Carolyn Kuhl and Janice Rogers Brown. Estrada withdrew his nomination in September.

Pickering was the first of Bush’s nominees to be blocked by the Democrats, while they controlled the Senate in 2001, and his chances of winning approval waned when then-Majority Leader Lott stepped down from his leadership position over racially insensitive statements about Sen. Strom Thurmond of South Carolina.

Pickering’s supporters, including his son, Rep. Charles “Chip” Pickering, R-Miss., and Mississippi GOP Sens. Lott and Thad Cochran, pressed hard for his promotion.

“I would be remiss if I did not express my gratitude to Senators Lott and Cochran for their friendship and for their strong and continuous support, and to my son Chip, who did so much to defend my record,” Pickering said Friday. “Most of all I am grateful for the outpouring of support and prayers from so many in Mississippi and around the country. I will serve in a manner to justify this confidence and support.”

More than 300 judges have reached federal courts through presidential recess appointments since 1789. Some of the more famous cases include Earl Warren’s appointment to be chief justice of the Supreme Court and Thurgood Marshall’s appointment to the 2nd District Court of Appeals in New York.