Decommissioned
The legal brawl at the civil-rights commission.

By Ramesh Ponnuru & John J. Miller
January 3, 2001 5:25 p.m.

eter Kirsanow will attend the January 11 meeting of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, NR has learned. The meeting will be the panel's first since chairwoman Mary Frances Berry and a majority of the commissioners refused to recognize Kirsanow as a rightful member of the panel last month. But the courts probably won't let him have his seat until the second half of the month at the earliest.

In November, President Bush appointed Kirsanow to a slot held by Victoria Wilson. But Wilson and her liberal allies on the commission insist that her term does not expire until 2006. At their monthly meeting in December, they voted against seating Kirsanow and refused even to let him speak.

The matter is already before a judge, with both sides submitting papers to U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler and hoping for a ruling shortly after January 14, when final briefs are due. Kessler is a Clinton appointee. But the strength of Kirsanow's case may see him through. Last month, the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service backed the White House view that Wilson's term has expired and the seat belongs to Kirsanow. No matter how Kessler rules, however, the case probably won't be settled except on appeal.

Wilson has secured her own legal representation in the case, but the commission is now trying to intervene. On December 21, staff director Les Jin announced that he had hired the law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison to represent the commission in the matter. This prompted a strong reply today from Commissioner Jennifer Braceras, who supports Kirsanow. "On what basis is the Commission authorized to retain outside counsel to represent us in this or any other matter?" she writes in a memo to Jin.

It's a good question. Wilson has her own lawyers. Why must the commission force its way into the dispute? But even if there's a constructive role for it to play, why can't its own staff lawyers handle the job? How much is this costing taxpayers? Last summer, Berry forbade commissioners Abigail Thernstrom and Russell Redenbaugh were barred from consulting with uncompensated scholars on their dissent to the commission's report on the presidential vote in Florida. Surely Berry isn't accepting pro bono assistance now.

Worth Reading
While we were away, Kevin Hasson had an excellent response to the notion, peddled by Bill Clinton among others, that we're fighting a war "against all those who believe in an absolute truth." Hasson argues that this idea simply inverts Osama bin Laden's way of looking at the world: "Both assume truth and freedom are irreconcilable opposites. The difference is that the Taliban happily sacrifices freedom for truth, while Clinton and the others obligingly sacrifice truth for freedom." The whole piece may be read here.