Civil Rights Director Opposes NYC's anti-STV agenda

[Lytton, Dennis]

Has New York City school boards dropped STV already?  The article is
ambiguous.

Dennis

> -----Original Message-----
> From:	Daniel Davis [SMTP:cicero13 at ufl.edu]
> Sent:	Wednesday, February 17, 1999 7:44 PM
> To:	elections-reform at igc.apc.org
> Cc:	election-methods-list at eskimo.com
> Subject:	Civil Rights Director Opposes NYC's anti-STV agenda
> 
> 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. . . .
>