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Volume 2 Number 2
ATTORNEY GENERAL HAS HIRED NO BLACKS OR WOMEN IN SENIOR POSITIONS
A recent article in the Washington Post (Nov. 26, 1986) reported that during Edwin Meese's 21 months as Attorney General not one Black or woman has been hired in a senior policy making position. The Attorney general inherited three high-ranking women and one high-ranking Black from his predecessor William French Smith. However, only one of the females remains and the Black resigned in November 1986.
The article also reported that few minorities or women have been selected for federal judgeships or U.S. attorney positions, both of which are screened by the Justice Department. The Reagan Administration has appointed 292 federal judges in six years, of whom 27 have been women (9.25 percent), and 17 have been black or Hispanic (5.8 percent). Of the 93 U.S. attorneys appointed during this period, two have been women and two have been black (2.15 percent). In contrast, the Carter Administration appointed a total of 298 federal judges, of whom L15 were female (15.1 percent) and 68 were minorities (23 percent). During the Carter Administration, 87 U.S. Attorneys were appointed, 4 women (4.6 percent) and 11 minorities (12.6 percent) (U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Equal 0pportunity in Presidential Appointments, June 1983).
Attorney General Meese and Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Bradford Reynolds have been the architects of the Administration's anti affirmative action policy. The central position of that policy has been that only identifiable victims of discrimination can benefit from affirmative action. The Department would bar the use of goals and timetables, maintaining that the Constitution prohibits the use of race conscious remedies such as goals and timetables. The Justice Department and the National Endowment for the Humanities have refused to set goals for the hiring of minorities and so report to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
Ralph G. Neas, executive director of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, stated that "The top echelons of the Justice Department constitute one of the most segregated work forces in the country. It provides us with a good illustration of what could result if the Meese-Reynolds brand of affirmative action becomes the law of the land" (Wash Post, 11/26/86, A19).
  
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