LEXIS-NEXIS® Academic
Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company
The New York Times
February 5, 2002, Tuesday, Late Edition - Final
SECTION: Section A; Page 21; Column 1; National Desk
LENGTH: 629 words
HEADLINE:
No Room for Bush's Civil Rights Appointee
BYLINE:
By NEIL A. LEWIS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON, Feb. 4
BODY:
A federal judge dealt a sharp setback to the Bush administration today in what
has become a small but nasty dispute between the White House and traditional
civil rights activists over who gets to sit on the United States Civil Rights
Commission.
The judge, Gladys Kessler of Federal District Court, ruled that President Bush
could not appoint a Cleveland lawyer to the commission because there was no
vacancy for him to fill. Mr. Bush had named Peter N. Kirsanow, a labor lawyer
and chairman of the Center for New Black Leadership, to the commission.
The White House even held a swearing-in ceremony for Mr. Kirsanow, who is
black and has criticized the traditional civil rights leadership as stale and
committed to fostering
"loserhood on blacks."
But Mary Frances Berry, the commission chairwoman and a fiery civil rights
activist, resisted seating Mr. Kirsanow. Ms. Berry argued that Victoria Wilson,
a woman appointed to the commission in January 2000 by President Bill Clinton
to replace Judge A. Leon Higginbotham Jr., has a six-year term under the law.
The White House contends that Ms. Wilson's term expired on Nov. 29, when the
term of Judge Higginbotham, who died in 1998, would have expired.
Today, Judge Kessler said that the law clearly required that Ms. Wilson be
allowed a full term and that there was no vacancy for Mr. Bush to fill.
Barbara Comstock, a spokeswoman for the Justice Department, said this afternoon
that the department would appeal the ruling as soon as possible to a
three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of
Columbia Circuit.
"We respectfully disagree with the court's ruling," Ms. Comstock said.
"The court's interpretation of the Civil Rights Commission's statute has the
potential to allow political gamesmanship to occur on what should be a
bipartisan, independent commission."
The appeal will certainly not come in time to have an impact on the next
meeting of the commission, scheduled for Friday. Ms. Wilson is expected to take
a seat at the table, and Mr. Kirsanow, if he shows up, will have to sit in the
audience as he has at previous meetings, unrecognized by Ms. Berry.
Ms. Berry told reporters outside the federal courthouse this afternoon,
"The court today upheld the independence of the commission, and for that I am
grateful."
The dispute involves more than clashing views of civil rights issues like
affirmative action; the appointment of Mr. Kirsanow would also affect the
balance of power on the commission. Ms. Berry and her allies account for five
of the eight seats on the commission, and the substitution of Mr. Kirsanow for
Ms. Wilson would leave the commission deadlocked at four to four.
Judge Kessler said the language of the law enacted in 1994 renewing the
commission's charter made it clear that each commissioner was to serve for six
years even if the appointment was to replace someone who had not completed a
term. She dismissed the argument of Justice Department lawyers that the law
required the terms to be staggered, which would have meant that Ms. Wilson had
to leave office when Judge Higginbotham's term expired.
Judge Kessler said Congress explicitly considered and rejected the inclusion of
a section in the bill requiring staggered terms.
The commission has no enforcement power but publicizes civil rights problems it
perceives in government policy and agencies.
Its last major project, a report on the 2000 presidential election,
greatly irritated the Bush administration. Voting along traditional lines,
the commission majority said Mr. Bush had won in Florida and gained the
presidency through "a pattern and practice of injustice, ineptitude and
inefficiency" by election officials that denied blacks the right to vote.
http://www.nytimes.com
LOAD-DATE: February 5, 2002