Prominent southern civil rights lawyers were split over the nomination. Stephen Bright, Director of the Southern Center for Human Rights, testified against the nomination and lambasted the Senate's decision to confirm Carnes to the bench. But Morris Dees, cofounder of the Southern Poverty Law Center and Carnes' frequent adversary, went door-to-door among Senate Democrats, fighting on behalf of Carnes. Both (Democratic) Senators from Alabama supported his nomination, as did the attorneys general of each of the states comprising the Eleventh Circuit.