European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - June 9, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 the stars and stripes june 1985 columns comments James Kilpatrick Reynolds is a 100percent civil tighter the Senate judiciary committee has begun confirmation hearings on the nomination of Wil Liam Bradford Reynolds to become associate attorney general of the United Ben Hooks of the a act has called him a ideological should Reynolds be confirmed of course he should be for two reasons 1 a president any president is entitled to have his own people at key positions in his administration 2 Reynolds has earned promotion from his present Post As head of the Justice depart ments civil rights some remarkable ironies have appeared in the controversy Over Reynolds the Liberal voices crying for his Scalp Are the voice of professional civil rights no one in our town is More fervently devoted to civil rights than Brad his critics oppose discrimination by reason of this is precisely Reynolds he too opposes discrimination by reason of the trouble is that Reynolds critics Ben for one do not truly believe in equal rights or in an end to theirs is the orwellian doctrine that some Are More equal than in their curious it is wrong to discriminate against but it is not wrong to discriminate against Early last month Hooks stated his views with great Anthony Lewis Reynolds and the he Are hiding behind Good Goody words and jus the administrations he is in fact designed to perpetuate injustice and the jaw dropping notion that fairness and equity Are Good Goody words tells us some thing about the nature of the opposition to Reynolds Reynolds is not a 50 percent civil Righter whose idea is to fight discrimination against Blacks he is a 100 percent civil Righter whose goal is to see that in areas covered by no one and no one specially because of the color of his for that soundly american View he is charged with being an insensitive the Senate judiciary committee will want to keep in mind one Paramount consideration the policies of Brad Reynolds Are the policies of Ronald you re member Ronald Reagan he is the fellow who last november carried 49 of the 50 states by a margin of 16 million he was reelected president by the great est electoral landslide since Roosevelt whipped Landon nearly 50 years in the absence of the most compelling involving moral turpitude or Gross conflict of a presidents executive nominees ought routinely to be no such extramural charges have been lev eled against the worst his accusers can say of him is that he has done his presidents a gentle reminder is in that what elections Are All in testimony before a House subcommittee in Reynolds expressed understandable Pride in his record Over the past four years As head of the civil rights under his leadership the department has prosecuted 177 criminal cases involving a denial of civil rights it has filed or intervened in 17 others under the voting rights the record compares favourably with civil fights activity under the Carter White is the complaint it is that the views of Brad Reynolds and the views of Ronald Reagan Are not the views of the a act and the american civil liberties that is the sum and substance of the whole Reynolds opposes the racist practice of bus ing Little children Miles away from the schools of their solely because the children Are Black or his opponents favor this monstrous act of racial Reynolds believes in Public policies that Are his foes want affirmative which is the answer to Ben Hooks frustration is not to deny Brad Reynolds his Post in the answer is for Hooks to elect his Guy in let the elected government get on with the business of govern Universal press Syndicate lawyer Reynolds suffers from indifference to Law on june a tense Lime in the struggle against racial discrimination in the president Kennedy called 244 of the country leading lawyers to the White he asked them to and they responded by setting up the lawyers committee for civil rights under i remember that meeting and what it for the first time the american Legal the great private committed themselves to working against the lawlessness of and it was not just a the committee sent lawyers into areas where there had been just about no one to defend the that history gives special meaning to an event last eighty four trustees of the lawyers committee said they were compelled for the first time Ever to oppose a nominee for Federal they urged the Senate to reject the nomination of William Bradford Reynolds to the 3 Job in the Justice associate attorney Reynolds has been the Reagan administrations assistant attorney general for civil in that Job he has wounded and outraged but i think his record has never been so coolly or devastatingly Analysed As it was in a statement to the Senate judiciary committee by the lawyers committee they judged him by professional and found in his record an in difference 19 the United states government has essentially changed sides under Reynolds that is what the statement makes so instead of fighting for the Blacks and women who have been the historic victims of the Justice department is now emphasizing the rights of White it is even the lawyers committee noted with a cer Tain when Reynolds is talking about state troopers in the Force was Lily White for its first 37 and the troopers were the enforcers of but when Reynolds writes a Brief urging the courts to undo an affirmative action program to promote More Black troop he talks Only about discrimination against it is As if there were no in increasing numbers of civil rights cases through put the the statement we Are encounter ing for the first time the fervent and vigorous opposition of the Federal the statement said it found even More disturbing Reynolds disregard for the Rule of Reynolds tends to dismiss his critics As political or special so the auspices of this statement its Legal professionalism Are it was Princi Pally drafted by Thomas the great antitrust lawyer at Swaine right now Reynolds is trying to undo affirmative action plans for hiring of fire and other employees by 51 state and local among them Are consent decrees that the Justice department pressed on the All this represents his most sweeping Effort to reverse special measures to give Blacks and women a toehold in jobs from which they have historically been the argument Reynolds makes for that policy is that a supreme court decision requires the he Points to the 1984 decision in the Memphis firefighters holding that an affirmative action plan must yield to a Bona fide seniority the Only trouble with that argument is that the courts do not agree with five appeals courts have heard and All have rejected they said the firefighters1 Case covered what it said it and did not affect other supreme court decisions allowing affirmative action plans to fill new being Long on the Law is nothing new for he made it his Mission to reverse longstanding government policy against tax exemptions for racist private schools until the supreme court held the policy Reynolds is an important More important than his for he demonstrates How different the new right is from the old american conservatism How ready to use the Law for narrow instrumental How Imper Vious to the sufferings of in How Lawless and How president Kennedy said in june 1963 that 100 years had passed since Lincoln freed the but their heirs were not yet fully they Are not yet freed from the Bonds of injustice they Are yet not freed from social and economic most of White and know that that is still but William Bradford Reynolds does c 1985 new York times Syndicate 101 things to pc