The Quota King
CLEGG, ROGER
The Quota King by Roger Clegg Bill Lann Lee, President Clinton's nominee to head the Justice Department's civil rights division, knew what the issues would be at his confirmation hearings before...
...He would not cite any positions he would take different from those of the last, controversial head of the civil rights division, Deval Patrick...
...The chairman could not understand why Proposition 209 (which outlaws discrimination) is inconsistent with the Fourteenth Amendment (which outlaws discrimination...
...Both senators expressed their frustration...
...At best," wrote Manshardt, Lee's conduct was "sneaky and underhanded...
...He admitted—as he had to, given the public record—his belief that Proposition 209 is unconstitutional...
...The Constitution gives senators two relevant duties: to vote on presidential nominees and to abide by their oath "to support this Constitution...
...But the Democrats don't really believe that there has been a bipartisan commitment lately, at least to civil rights as they define it...
...The libertarian Institute for Justice had issued a report documenting Lee's consistent support for racial preferences, including his opposition to California's Proposition 209 and his advocacy of forced busing...
...He would not explain his statement, "The term 'forced busing' is a misnomer...
...Lee could not point to a single federal race-based program that he thought inconsistent with Adarand, though he could not point to any that he thought consistent with Adarand either...
...I have real difficulties here...
...And only when pressed by Sen...
...The Quota King by Roger Clegg Bill Lann Lee, President Clinton's nominee to head the Justice Department's civil rights division, knew what the issues would be at his confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee on October 22...
...the former resulted in a federal race-based contracting preference being declared unconstitutional, while the latter upheld a similar preference...
...He said only that he had not intended this "to be a legal pronouncement"—an odd justification, since the sentence appeared in a Supreme Court brief...
...Seen one Asian American, seen them all...
...Sen...
...thought it particularly admirable, for some reason, that of the "150 to 200" cases that Lee had filed, only six had gone to trial...
...He is "not a theorist," Lee cheerfully assured the committee...
...Sen...
...So, try as the administration might, it couldn't keep the focus of the hearings from coming back to preferences...
...Thurmond asked Leahy to clarify what he was talking about, and then Thurmond told Leahy, "I didn't have all the facts at that time...
...Apparently, the Democratic version of the American dream is to grow up and sue people...
...Patrick Leahy, the Vermont Democrat, thanked South Carolina Republican Strom Thurmond for a prenomination letter the latter had inexplicably written praising Lee, hoping that Thurmond would let the remark slide and create an aura of bipartisan support for the nominee...
...Lee, who is head of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund's Los Angeles office, did not disavow his organization's charge that the California university system's new colorblind admissions policy violates the Civil Rights Act of 1964...
...No senator who believes in a colorblind Constitution can be faithful to his oath and vote to confirm the nomination of Bill Lann Lee...
...Richard Durbin tried to play the race card, suggesting that perhaps the Republican investigation of campaign financing had focused excessively on Asian Americans, then reminding his colleagues that Lee was "a representative of that group...
...Hatch told Lee that that the matter of preferences is not an "itty bitty issue...
...Spencer Abraham about judges running prisons...
...Chairman, you can't expect a Democratic nominee to this position to be anti-civil rights"—the implication being that this is what one would expect from a Republican nominee...
...Mike DeWine about whether he shared the concerns of the parents of bused children about long bus rides and the decline of neighborhood schools, or to Sen...
...The youthful Leahy, 57, will have to wait a few more years before he can outfox Thurmond, 94...
...He is a "pragmatist," not "a knee-jerk ideologue," others said...
...My mind is open on this nomination...
...And he indicated that there should be racial preferences as long as there is racism (in other words, forever...
...v. Pena was wrong and that its earlier decision in Fullilove v. Klutznick was right...
...Nor does every opposing lawyer praise Lee...
...Besides bipartisanship and pragmatism, the main subject Lee's supporters were willing to discuss was the American dream, of which senator after senator declared Lee to be the "epitome...
...Jeff Sessions did Lee admit his opposition to Adarand...
...But Lee didn't help himself at the hearings...
...Lee declined to give any examples of cases he brought on behalf of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund that he would not bring as head of the civil rights division...
...Of course, cynics might point to these numbers as evidence of a shakedown approach to litigation...
...But when Hatch asked Lee whether that meant Lee would support Proposition 209's constitutionality before the Supreme Court, the nominee declined to make any such commitment...
...Which is just where it belonged, given Lee's and the Clinton administration's undying support for preferential policies...
...He would not give a straight answer to Sen...
...If some of Lee's answers were harmful to his cause, others were evasive—confirming critics' fears that they are being shown only the tip of a dangerous iceberg...
...Patrick J. Manshardt, general counsel of the Individual Rights Foundation in Los Angeles, wrote Hatch a letter detailing an incident in which Lee tried to lock the local police department into using race- and sex-based hiring and promotion goals for the next 18 years by a collusive settlement, approved by a magistrate without the judge's knowledge, on the day of the vote on Proposition 209...
...At worst, unethical...
...A number of conservative columnists and lawyers had raised objections to Lee on these grounds as well...
...This hearing was no exception...
...Kennedy...
...Dianne Feinstein condescendingly explained to Hatch, "Mr...
...The mask slipped at the hearings, when Democratic Sen...
...Lee himself sues private employers like his father if he thinks their workforces don't have the right racial, ethnic, and gender "balance...
...As well he should...
...Lee said repeatedly that he believes preferences are perfectly fine, so long as they are used in a "limited, measured way...
...A big part of the pitch always made by Democrats whenever they want Republicans to vote their way on a civil rights issue is the need for a "bipartisan commitment to civil rights enforcement...
...The other entertaining moment of partisanship came when Democratic Sen...
...Friendly senators quoted former opponents who praised Lee's reasonableness, and Lee praised himself in this regard...
...With respect to Proposition 209, committee chairman Orrin Hatch pointed out that the court of appeals had upheld the ballot initiative, whereupon Lee quickly volunteered that he would "follow the law...
...He also said that he believes the Supreme Court's decision in Adarand Constructors, Inc...
...He could not say whether the well-publicized racial preferences in the pending transportation-bill reauthorization are unconstitutional, or whether the district court's decision striking down those preferences in the wake of Adarand was correct...
...Roger Clegg is general counsel of the Center for Equal Opportunity in Washington, D.C...
...School districts do not force children to ride a bus, but only to arrive on time at their assigned schools...
...Lee's father's version of the American dream—he was a Chinese immigrant who served in World War II, opened a laundry in Harlem, and sent his son to Yale College and Columbia Law School—is now outmoded...
...It didn't work...
...Edward Kennedy said Lee might be "even better" than Patrick...
Vol. 3 • November 1997 • No. 8
