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By Bluey Posted in Civil Rights | John Boehner | Law — Comments (3) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

House Minority Leader John Boehner appointed Todd Gaziano to fill the vacant seat on the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights today, adding another strong and thoughtful defender of equal rights to the commission.

For the past decade, Todd has played an instrumental role in advancing the true guarantee of equal protection for all Americans -- one free of unconstitutional quotas and preferences. I've witnessed his work firsthand; he's a colleague of mine at The Heritage Foundation, where he serves as a senior legal fellow and director of the Center for Legal and Judicial Studies.

As a commissioner, Todd will help lead the agency in analyzing civil rights issues in America and studying the enforcement of civil rights laws. Former Attorney General Ed Meese praised Boehner's appointment: "Todd has shown great leadership on civil rights issues. His effectiveness is enhanced by his energy and new thinking that values results over partisan squabbling."

I had an opportunity to talk to Todd shortly after the appointment was announced. Below is a short Q&A about his new role as a commissioner and the issues he'll be confronting on the commission.

Read the interview ...

This commission has been the subject of heated debates in the past. Why do you want to serve on it?

This is an especially exciting time to work on civil rights issues, and the Civil Rights Commission presents a wonderful opportunity for me to become more effective. There are still many impediments to achieving the goals of the civil rights movement and enforcing the guarantee of equal protection, but there has also been great progress in recent decades in rooting out the worst forms of discrimination. I believe the decades ahead show even greater promise in guaranteeing true equality.

What attributes will you bring to the table?

I genuinely enjoy the honest exchange of ideas on civil rights issues, particularly ideas regarding solutions to the lingering problems of racial, ethnic and gender discrimination. I’ve testified in Congress on civil rights issues, hosted lectures and conferences on such issues, and organized “moot court” sessions for Supreme Court arguments in most of the important equal protection cases in the past 10 years, including the University of Michigan undergraduate and law school admissions cases. And recently, I've become more involved with the Civil Rights Commission itself, serving as the co-chairman of the Economic Opportunities Subcommittee of the Virginia Advisory Committee.

What do you see as the commission’s top responsibilities?

The commission remains one of the most important, if not the most important, independent sources of research and analysis on civil rights issues in America. At the time of its founding in 1957, Congress did not have a majority to create federal agencies with enforcement power to protect civil rights.

One of the commission’s original purposes was to lay the groundwork for such landmark civil rights laws as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. It largely succeeded in that original goal by the late 1960s. But there are always new challenges to ensuring the guarantee of equal protection under law, including improved educational opportunities for minority students and concerns about new discrimination against religious minorities or immigrant populations.

Some legal scholars have questioned the effectiveness of the commission in the past. Do you think it still serves a worthwhile purpose?

I have been among those who questioned its effectiveness during periods when the commission was paralyzed by personal divisions and poor management. In part, this was due to the fact that the commission’s purpose was superseded by the landmark civil rights laws and other federal agencies with enforcement authority, and it sometimes became embroiled in disputes that were better handled by those agencies.

However, the commission has re-examined its priorities in recent years to focus on more pressing civil rights issues of our era, including those that are not within the jurisdiction of other agencies. And under the excellent management of its recent staff director, Ken Marcus, it became a much more effectively run institution.

What other issues would like to see the Commission focus on during your tenure?

The lack of good educational opportunities for many minority students has long been a concern to the Commission, but the focus on effective solutions should be expanded. This is one of the issues in which Minority Leader Boehner has shown great leadership in Congress. I share his particular interest in studying and promoting greater educational choice for minority parents whose public schools are currently failing them and who cannot afford private school tuition.

My work assisting those who argued the landmark Cleveland school choice case in the Supreme Court deepened my appreciation for leaders who want to offer parents some choice to improve their children’s education. The Commission has a broad mandate to study government institutions and public policies that harm minorities, even if they are not unlawful per se. It’s hard to deny that many school districts are doing a terrible job at providing a good education in minority neighborhoods. I think we can do a lot more with the public resources we have and offer a choice to the parents who need it the most.

Racial disputes have emerged as a major issue this election year. What are some of the most important civil rights issues you see playing out?

The racial debates among presidential candidates might not amount to anything, but the fact that one of the major parties is likely to nominate a woman or an African-American for president is proof of how far we’ve come in changing personal prejudices in America. It’s also refreshing to see that Sen. Clinton’s gender and Sen. Obama’s race seem not to be major issues in themselves.

The most exciting and promising developments in this election cycle may be the five initiatives in Arizona, Colorado, Missouri, Oklahoma and Nebraska to adopt the ban on discrimination from the Civil Rights Act of 1964 in their state constitutions. These civil rights initiatives spearheaded by Ward Connerly are modeled after the successful campaigns in California, Washington and Michigan, which are typically blue states by the way. Michigan was the most recent state to show that even when the leading politicians from both parties came out against the initiative and mischaracterized its language, the voters decisively endorsed banning all forms of discrimination including preferences. When voters are given a chance to choose between continuing racial preferences disguised as “affirmative action” and banning all discrimination and preferences, they side with the real meaning of equal protection under law.