Why Did the Obama Administration Renege on Its Offer to Tom Saenz?
All of us at EJS were ecstatic when we learned earlier this year that Tom Saenz was under consideration for Assistant Attorney General, Civil Rights Division, Department of Justice.
Tom would have brought to that position an extensive and celebrated background as a champion for civil rights, social justice and progressive values.
We were surprised to learn on Friday that President Obama appointed Maryland labor secretary Tom Perez to the post. The announcement was followed by reports that the administration offered the job to Tom Saenz and rescinded it because of “political considerations.”
At the same time that we congratulate Mr. Perez’s appointment to the position, we’re also mystified and incredibly disappointed by the administration’s seemingly unjustified change of heart about Tom Saenz.
Some say that the decision was based on the possibility that Tom’s progressive views on immigration would have fueled a nominations battle with Senate Republicans.
We hope there was a better reason.
As regional counsel for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Tom served as lead counsel in civil rights cases involving such issues as educational equity, employment discrimination, immigrants’ rights, day laborer rights and voting rights.
He served as MALDEF’s lead counsel in successfully challenging California’s Proposition 187 in court, presenting extensive arguments on numerous occasions in three different cases involving the anti-immigrant initiative.
Tom clerked at both the federal district court and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit after graduating summa cum laude from Yale University and receiving his law degree from Yale Law School.
His qualifications for the Assistant Attorney General position were never in question.
Please contact the White House and ask for an explanation of why the administration reneged on Tom Saenz’s appointment. President Obama has asked us to hold him accountable. We should do so now.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/
NCLR Expresses Profound Disappointment with Saenz Decision
Janet Murguía, President and CEO of the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), the largest national Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States, today expressed profound disappointment today that distinguished civil rights attorney Thomas Saenz is no longer a candidate to head the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice.
(Also see EJS’s statement here.)
“Thomas Saenz was a great choice to oversee a department tasked with enforcing federal statutes to prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, sex, disability, religion, and national origin. He follows the law meticulously and is one of the best litigators our country has. He has dedicated his entire career to the fight for justice, equal opportunity, and dignity for those who have no voice,” said Murguía.
Kate Kendell, Eva Paterson: ‘Standing Together and Continuing the Conversation’
Next Thursday, the California Supreme Court will hear arguments in our legal challenge to Proposition 8. As we seek to overturn Prop 8, we have the broadest array of support ever seen on an LGBT issue before any California Court. This support speaks directly to the relationships and coalition work that many in the LGBT, religious, business, and civil rights communities have been doing for years. However, there is another truth motivating the breadth of voices calling on the court to invalidate Prop 8. Prop 8 is an assault on the California Constitution and the most fundamental principal of any functioning democracy: all people will be treated equally under the law.
ACS Sneak Preview of Documentary Film ‘A Class Apart’
ACS will tomorrow give a sneak preview of “A Class Apart,” a documentary film chronicling the landmark 14th Amendment case, Hernandez v. Texas. The Thursday, February 12, event is at Landmark Theatres Embarcadero Center Cinema, One Embarcadero Center, Promenade Level, San Francisco, starting at 7 p.m. with doors open at 6:30 p.m. A discussion takes place at 8 p.m. The cost to attend this event is $10, payable online at the RSVP page.
There’s also a pre-screening reception at 6 p.m. at Chevys, Two Embarcadero, (next to the Embarcadero Center Cinema) made possible by the generous sponsorship of Keker & Van Nest LLP, the San Francisco La Raza Lawyers Association, and the East Bay La Raza Lawyers Association.
Eva Paterson on Roundtable Discussing Prop. 8 on 5th Anniv. of SF’s Marriage Licenses
EJS President Eva Paterson will join other civl rights and religious leaders and plaintiff couples from In re Marriage Cases in a roundtable to reflect on the historic California Supreme Court ruling and the pending Prop. 8 legal challenge. This discussion takes place on the fifth anniversary of San Francisco’s first issuance of marriage licenses.
The original plaintiffs, including Phyllis Lyon, the first to be married in San Francisco in 2004 and again on June 16, 2008, will make short statements about the personal significance of the ruling. Civil rights and religious leaders will discuss their role as amici in the Prop 8 legal challenge.
The roundtable takes place on Friday, February 13, from 10:30 a.m. at the National Center for Lesbian Rights, 870 Market Street, Suite 370, San Francisco.
Asian America Must Battle Injustice with President Obama
I originally wrote this for ningin.com, a site covering Asian media and pop culture.
A Black man born in Hawai’i with an Asian sister was sworn into office Tuesday as our President. He took the oath of office on the same bible used by Abraham Lincoln for the exact same oath 148 years ago, realizing the dreams of countless African Americans and others who previously never imagined this moment.
President Barack Obama now leads our country into uncertain and troubled times. But he begins work on our nation’s ills with unprecedented numbers of Asian Americans in substantive roles in this Administration.
Japanese American Peter Rouse is White House Senior Adviser. Chinese American Chris Lu is Cabinet Secretary. Former Army Chief of Staff Eric Shinseki is Secretary of Veterans Affairs. Nobel prize winner Steven Chu is Secretary of Energy.
We now have a First Family that includes Asian Americans. The President’s sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, is half Indonesian. Her husband Konrad is Chinese American. Their daughter Suhaila is hapa.
This roster of Asian names is significant because the halls and backrooms of power in our nation’s capitol have for too long been dominated by monochromatic men. It does not mean we have arrived. It means we’ve only just begun.
Akonadi Foundation Launches Oscar Grant Peace and Racial Justice Fund
The Akonadi Foundation today announced the launch of the Oscar Grant Peace and Racial Justice Fund and the immediate availability of mini-grants of up to $500 to support the critical and emerging organizing, advocacy, and cultural work taking place.
On the first day of 2009, a white BART police officer shot and killed Oscar Grant, 22, as the young African American man lay on his stomach with his hands cuffed behind his back. While the officer has now been charged with murder, his arrest took place a full two weeks after the killing, following massive public outcry and an intervention by the state Attorney General. (For more information please go to http://joincape.blogspot.com).
In response to Oscar Grant’s killing, people all across Oakland, the Bay Area, and the country have come together to demand justice. This outpouring of collective action has been supported and guided by the experience, resources, and members of community organizations that have worked for years toward creating a world free of the structures of racism that oppress and brutalize people of color every day.
