http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010810/ts/court_discrimination_dc.html

Friday August 10 8:52 PM ET

Bush Administration Defends Affirmative Action

By James Vicini

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Disappointing conservatives who wanted the government to switch sides, the Bush administration urged the U.S. Supreme Court (news - web sites) on Friday to uphold a federal affirmative action program .

The Republican administration defended the Transportation Department's highway construction program that favors minority and disadvantaged businesses, maintaining the position the previous Democratic administration adopted a day before President Bill Clinton left office.

Solicitor General Theodore Olson said the program's regulations were ``narrowly tailored to serve a compelling government interest'' and that ``Congress has a compelling interest in eliminating discrimination and its effects on government spending and procurement.''

The closely watched case marked the first test of affirmative action during George W. Bush's presidency, and drew sharp criticism from opponents of racial preferences.

Linda Chavez, president of the Center for Equal Opportunity, said, ``I think this is not only horrendous policy, I think it is bad politics.''

Chavez, who was named by Bush to be labor secretary but withdrew after a furor erupted over a domestic worker living in her home, said federal contracting would have been an easy case for the administration to draw the line against racial preferences.

``To cave in so early bodes poorly for the administration taking a stand later on,'' she said. ``I think the motivation behind this decision was political.''

CONSERVATIVES HOPED FOR CHANGE

Conservatives opposed to affirmative action had hoped the Bush White House would change the government's position on the issue, based on the president's stand during the campaign and prior statements by top administration officials.

During the campaign, Bush opposed affirmative action programs that used racial quotas, but generally supported greater opportunity for minorities, calling it ``affirmative access.''

Olson, the government's chief advocate before the high court, has previously been critical of affirmative action programs. As a senator from Missouri, Attorney General John Ashcroft (news - web sites) opposed the contracting program.

Former Attorney General Edwin Meese and Chapman University law professor John Eastman, in an article published in the Washington Times on Friday, cited a 1998 speech by then-Sen. Ashcroft opposing use of race classifications in federal law.

Bush and Ashcroft should ``place government-sanctioned racial discrimination back where it belongs -- in the course of ultimate extinction,'' Meese, a top White House aide and attorney general during Ronald Reagan (news - web sites)'s presidency in the 1980s, and Eastman wrote.

The case began 11 years ago to the day when Adarand Construction Inc., a Colorado construction highway firm owned by a white man, initially sued over a 1990 program that set aside construction contracts for minority businesses.

The Supreme Court in a 1995 ruling in the case imposed tough new standards before the government can give preferences for minorities.

After the ruling, Congress reauthorized the law and the Transportation Department revised the program.

A U.S. appeals court upheld the revised program, and the Supreme Court then agreed to hear Adarand's latest argument that the program amounted to unlawful race discrimination.

Olson urged the high court to affirm the appeals court's decision. ``Eliminating racial discrimination and its effects remains one of the nation's greatest challenges,' he said in the 50-page brief.

The current program ``is not unconstitutional on its face,'' Olson said.

He argued that ``discrimination, not race, is the key'' to getting status as a disadvantaged business, and that the regulations seek to limit that status to firms owned by individuals who have suffered the effects of bias.

The high court will hear the case in its term that begins in October, with a decision due by the end of June.

-- (news@and.views), August 11, 2001

Answers

With Linda on this one. Parsing twixt "action" & "access" still tries to ignore performance vs cost. Naw. Not with my tax dollars thank you.

BTW: Chapman University? Help me here.

-- Carlos (riffraff@cybertime.net), August 11, 2001.

Linda said:

``I think the motivation behind this decision was political.''

No shit Sherlock….what other motivation is there in D.C.?

Yes Carlos, that is our very own Chapman University in Orange. They have been recruiting some real heavy hitters to their faculty, especially in the School of Law. Dr. John Eastman is a prime example.

-- So (cr@t.es), August 12, 2001.