Title: The Enforcement of Civil Rights Statutes: The Reagan Administration's Record
Abstract: THE ENFORCEMENT OF CIVIL RIGHTS STATUTES: THE REAGAN ADMINISTRATION'S RECORD Barbara Wolvovitz* Jules Lobel** INTRODUCTION The Reagan administration has launched a systematic attack on the con- stitutional and statutory rights of minorities and women contained in the civil rights statutes and the thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth amendments. Those amendments, and the civil rights laws which Congress has enacted to enforce the promise of equality contained in the Constitution, mandate an af- firmative obligation on the part of the federal government to protect the rights of those who have been excluded from the American dream. As Judge Wis- dom has pointed out, [t]he Constitution calls for equal treatment under the law, and in light of the pervasive past discriminatory practices and the present effects of these practices, in many cases this goal can be achieved only by taking active affirmative steps to remove the effects of prior inequality. ' Yet this administration, far from taking affirmative steps to root out and rectify discrimination, has proceeded to erect obstacle upon obstacle in the way of the enforcement of Americans' basic rights. Whatever may be the technical rea- soning or argument of the administration in each case, the pattern and prac- tice is clear-whether in housing, school desegregation, employment, municipal services or higher education-the administration has abandoned the very people that these constitutional amendments and statutes were designed to protect. The Justice Department's Civil Rights Division has long been the center- piece of the federal civil rights commitment. Yet, under this administration, the Division has reversed the bipartisan approach to civil rights that has char- acterized the last twenty years. Again and again, the Reagan administration has failed to uphold and enforce settled law and past administration's practice in the field of civil rights. 2 In contrast to its refusal to enforce well established legal principles on behalf of the rights of minorities and women, the Civil J.D., Rutgers Law School, 1978. * Assistant Professor of Law, University of Pittsburgh School of Law. This article is adapted from testimony given by the authors before the House Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Civil and Constitutional Rights. Presented April 3, 1985, on behalf of the National Lawyers Guild. We would like to thank the various students who helped prepare the testimony from which this article is adapted. Those students are: Francis D'Eramo of the University of Pittsburgh, Elsie Chan- dler and Estelle Bronstein of Rutgers Law School, and Robert Zuss of City University of New York Law School at Queens. 1. Williams v. City of New Orleans, 729 F.2d 1554, 1573 (5th Cir. 1984) (Wisdom, J., concurring). 2. See Days, Turning Back the Clock.- The Reagan Adminstration and Civil Rights, 19 HARV.
Publication Year: 1986
Publication Date: 1986-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
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