L.A. Group Joins Push for Civil Rights Nominee

Stepping up public pressure, a broad coalition of Los Angeles-area political, civil rights and community leaders Tuesday joined other supporters across the country to urge the U.S. Senate to approve embattled Bill Lann Lee as the nation’s chief civil rights enforcer.

“Equal opportunities for individuals of every race, culture, gender, religion and economic background must be above petty partisan politics or a narrow, extreme ideological litmus test,” said John Mack, president of the Los Angeles Urban League.

“We are concerned that [Lee] has become a pawn in highly partisan political power play and has been unfairly represented as one who would advance the opportunities of various minorities at the expense of the white population,” he added, speaking in his capacity as co-chairman of the African-American Jewish Leadership Connection, representing 21 groups and leaders.

Allies of Lee, Western regional counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund in Los Angeles, rallied at similar events in several other cities, including Washington, New York, Detroit, Memphis and Salt Lake City.

In the nation’s capital, the White House pushed ahead Tuesday with its bid to make the 48-year-old Chinese American attorney the assistant attorney general for civil rights.

President Clinton reiterated his determination to stand behind the Los Angeles lawyer, whose advocacy of affirmative action has sparked strong opposition in the Senate.

At the same time, administration officials were planning an unusual end-run around Congress if all else fails.

The White House has been enmeshed in a behind-the-scenes debate over how to move forward with Lee’s nomination, which Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee were prepared to kill when Democrats blocked a vote last month.

Clinton soon may give Lee a “recess appointment” while Congress is out of session, enabling him to hold the job through 1998.

At the same time, Clinton and other officials have expressed a preference for Lee receiving a normal confirmation in the Senate.

“In the course of this next week or so we’re going to try to put public pressure on the Republicans to make them think about what they’re doing, and then we’ll see where we are,” said White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry.

“If they don’t change their minds,” McCurry added, “then we’ll probably go ahead” with a recess appointment.

Posing for photographs in front of the Capitol on Tuesday, Lee said: “I look forward to being on the job,” adding that he was “deeply appreciative of the support” he has received. But he declined to speak more directly about the flap over his nomination.

At Tuesday’s news conference in Los Angeles, leaders representing Asian, Latino, African American and Jewish communities said Lee’s qualifications are beyond question.

“Jewish tradition tells us that ‘justice, justice shalt thou pursue,’ ” said Joan Patsy Ostroy, representing the American Jewish Congress. “Bill Lee has fulfilled that dictum as much as anyone in Los Angeles.

“Mayor Richard Riordan’s praise for Bill Lee speaks volumes about the role that he has played in the often divisive arena of civil rights in Los Angeles. He has been a principled advocate but also a healer.”

Ostroy said Lee’s case should be brought “to the full Senate and let his commitment to the Constitution and to civil rights be fully heard.”

Stewart Kwoh, president of the Asian Pacific American Legal Center of Southern California, urged Clinton to make a “recess appointment” should it appear that he cannot persuade senators to change their minds.

“It’s a risk, but the president’s got to stand up for his people,” Kwoh said. “Where are you going to find a civil rights attorney who doesn’t support affirmative action?”

Last weekend, Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, wrote Clinton urging him to not make a recess appointment.

Lee’s foes on the Senate panel, which refused to move the nomination to the floor, seized on Lee’s strong advocacy of affirmative action and his opposition to California’s Proposition 209. Some of Lee’s philosophical opponents also have taken issue with his legal strategies in civil rights cases.

But Tuesday, in an orchestrated plan to exert pressure on the Senate, Lee’s supporters spoke out.

“Republicans are famous for preaching personal responsibility and qualifications,” said Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles), chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus.

“But when faced with the son of Chinese immigrants who worked hard to win a scholarship to Yale College, graduated magna cum laude and went on to receive a law degree from Columbia Law School, they attack the very excellence and hard work they say they espouse.”

Political scientist Don T. Nakanishi, who was Lee’s classmate at Yale 30 years ago, described Lee as one of the most fair-minded people he has known.

“Bill is not an ideologue,” said Nakanishi, director of UCLA’s Asian American Studies Center. “Bill will serve the American public extremely well, when given that opportunity.”

Kang reported from Los Angeles and Peterson from Washington.