Foe of Quotas Gets No.3 Job in Justice Dept.

Assistant Atty. Gen. William Bradford Reynolds, the controversial architect of efforts to end school busing for desegregation and to eliminate racial quotas in job discrimination cases, will be promoted to the third-highest post in the Justice Department, Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III said Friday.

Officials said that the elevation of Reynolds, 42, to associate attorney general confirmed that the new attorney general is relying increasingly on Reynolds for advice, making him a key player in the new team assuming command of the Justice Department.

The move, announced at Meese’s first news conference as attorney general, was also seen as a way to defuse part of the controversy that has marked Reynolds’ tenure. And officials predicted that it would boost Reynolds’ chances to succeed Solicitor General Rex E. Lee as the government’s chief advocate before the Supreme Court--a position he has long coveted.

Reynolds will take over from a longtime friend of Meese, D. Lowell Jensen, who was elevated to deputy attorney general. Jensen, 56, worked with Meese as a deputy district attorney in Alameda County in California and later became district attorney there after Meese resigned in 1966.

At the news conference, Meese displayed a detailed knowledge of a wide range of department actions and policies as well as a firm attitude on how he would handle his new post.

Won’t Release Logs

In one instance, after he was asked when daily appointment logs would be available for reporters to examine, Meese replied quickly and with determination: “They won’t. I am keeping logs, but they won’t be available.”

Daily release of the logs, which included a detailed accounting of the attorney general’s contacts with persons outside the Justice Department, was instituted during the Jimmy Carter Administration by Atty. Gen. Griffin B. Bell and continued by his successor, Benjamin R. Civiletti. Meese’s predecessor, Atty. Gen. William French Smith, discontinued the practice when he took office.

During confirmation hearings by the Senate Judiciary Committee on Meese’s nomination, Sen. Charles McC. Mathias (R-Md.) had extracted a promise from Meese to keep the logs. On Friday, a spokeswoman for Mathias said that the senator would look into the matter because he had assumed Meese would make the logs public.

“He and the attorney general have a different view of what transpired,” spokeswoman Ann Pincus said.

Stormy Confirmation

In speaking with reporters, Meese brushed off a question on what effect his stormy, yearlong confirmation process will have on how he approaches the nation’s top law enforcement job.

“What has happened over this year is behind us, and I’m looking forward, not backward,” he said.

Meese, who has vowed to pursue the “terrorists” he blamed for the abduction and killing in Mexico of Drug Enforcement Administration agent Enrique S. Camarena, said that he was “moderately encouraged” by the arrests made in the case in the last two days by Mexico’s federal judicial police.

He said that he has a number of ideas for increasing joint U.S.-Mexican efforts to fight drug trafficking in Mexico but wants to discuss them with Mexican Atty. Gen. Sergio Garcia Ramirez before making them public. Garcia has been invited to meet with Meese as soon as possible.

Congress and Federalism

Meese indicated also that he would give high priority to opposing what he called Congress’ tendency to enact laws on matters “that historically have been reserved for the states.” During his tenure, he said, Justice Department officials will examine proposed laws and testify on Capitol Hill on their impact on federalism.

“Every session of Congress, we have a variety of federal laws that confer jurisdiction on federal courts, where such matters are more properly handled in the state courts,” he said.

As an example of the erosion of federalism, he cited a federal act under which Department of Agriculture inspectors check on the care of horses. That “certainly seems to me an activity that can be done at the local level,” he said.