Three’s Company: Guinier, Reagan, Bush
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The shrill attacks on Lani Guinier, President Clinton’s nominee to head the Justice Department’s civil rights division, give to those who know her a sense of Kafkaesque unreality. Her experience, character, respect for the law and balanced approach to the issues would make her one of the finest assistant attorneys general ever to serve our country. She is superbly qualified, mainstream and pro-integrationist in the tradition of Thurgood Marshall. It is essential, if democratic principles are to be preserved, that President Clinton give her the opportunity to defend her record before the Senate Judiciary Committee. For him to yank the nomination now would not only be unfair but, some would say, political cowardice. Those intimately familiar with the history of racial discrimination in this country and with recent cases under the Voting Rights Act understand all too well the problems that Lani Guinier addresses in her scholarly writings, which explore possible court remedies for the worst instances of racial discrimination in the political process. Despite the progress made since enactment of the Voting Rights Act, too many egregious examples of racial and ethnic discrimination persist. More : query.nytimes.com |