« The Column | Main | The Coming Split on the Right? »
August 22, 2005
Box 11 - Roberts and the Civil Rights Commission
As part of the "Adopt a Box" campaign started by Hugh Hewitt, I agreed to take a look at documents in Box 11-JGR/Civil Rights Commission. My initial response?
Someone needs to learn how to keep documents straight when they're scanned. It's hard to read this stuff at a 30 degree angle. Anyway...
This packet of information has to do with President Ronald Reagan's appointment of John Bunzel and Morris Abram to the Civil Rights Commission in 1983. The first significant section with Roberts' input is on page five, where he edits a letter intended for someone concerned about the president's picks for the Commission.
On page eight, we find out who the concerned party is - Jesse Jackson. In a memo to Fred Fielding, counsel to the president, associate counsel Peter Rusthoven discusses who should sign the letter - the president or someone from the counsel's office. Roberts' views are here:
So Roberts considered a presidential response in this instance appropriate for two reasons. One, because he felt the issue was important enough to warrant such a response. Two, to prevent Jesse Jackson from getting publicity for saying the president 'ignored' his concerns.
The next few documents are letters that Roberts was cc'd by others in the counsel office, until the end when there is a response to a petition for intervention. The response is signed by Heidi Solomon and Gregg Meyers. The case involves a violation of the civil rights act of 1964 and the U.S. government's attempts to end de facto segregation in the Charleston, SC school district. The briefing asks for the court to deny intervention of right to other petitioners, since their goals and that of the United States are similar enough so the U.S. can adequately represent their interests (to end that segregation) in court. The briefing does say that permissive intervention may be appropriate in this case, however.
This is relatively boring stuff, to be honest, and I don't see anything in this packet of information that will make headlines. If a reporter is desperate, they might try to make something of the fact that Roberts suggested Jesse Jackson looks for headlines. The media is going to have to look elsewhere for evidence that Roberts is anti-civil rights.
UPDATE - Bump. For the record, John Bunzel is now a senior research fellow at the Hoover institution. Morris Abram passed away in 2000.
Posted by slublog at August 22, 2005 12:20 AM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.slublog.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/1718
Comments
The Adopt a Box program is brilliant, and is likely to establish a broad new front in the confrontation between serious blogs and the complacent, lazy MSM.
Posted by: D. Carter at August 21, 2005 11:05 AM