Civil Rights Director Opposes NYC's anti-STV agenda

[Daniel Davis]

Hatch warns White House on Lee
By Sean Scully
17FEB99
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
[Abridged to highlight comments on STV]


--WASHINGTON    Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin G. Hatch
warned the White House yesterday not to renominate Bill Lann Lee to the
Justice Department's top civil rights job -- a post he has held for more
than a year without Senate confirmation.
     "During Lee's tenure, the Justice Department has advocated the same
policies that initially led to his failure to be confirmed" in 1997, the
Utah Republican said in a written statement.
     Mr. Hatch's warning came hours after two conservative civil rights
organizations -- which actively opposed Mr. Lee's original nomination --
issued a scorching assessment of Mr. Lee's first year. . . .
     "What before were just predictions now are undeniable facts," said
Roger Clegg, vice president of the Center for Equal Opportunity, at a
Washington press conference.
     Mr. Clegg joined with Clint Bolick, vice president of the Institute
for Justice, and former Attorney General Edwin W. Meese III to issue the
critical report.
     "Mr. Lee has a long record of promoting discrimination on the basis
of race and sex through preferences and quotas," despite Supreme Court
decisions overturning such policies, Mr. Meese said.
     As an example, the report pointed to continued appeals by Mr. Lee's
office to a 1996  North Carolina case, where a federal court struck down
a Justice Department plan to force the state prison system to boost its
hiring of women.
     The report also criticized Mr. Lee for opposing a New York City
plan to simplify its complex election system for school board members.
The new system eliminated a convoluted process in which voters were
asked to rank candidates on a scale of one to nine to a system where
voters simply vote for four candidates. The top vote-getters would win a
seat on the board.
     Mr. Lee's office contended the change would dilute the power of
minority voters.
     Mr. Lee "has pursued racial preferences with the zeal of an
ideologue," Mr. Bolick said. . . .