On the day Thurgood Marshall announced his resignation from the United States Supreme Court, one knew it would be an utter disaster.
Even before President Bush made the announcement, I knew that whether the nominee for his replacement was male or female, African-American, Hispanic or white, the person he named would be a blockade for women`s rights.
And for men`s rights.
Since Ronald Reagan`s election in 1980, the clock has been ticking down as the freedoms gained by civil rights leaders and women`s rights activists have been chipped away.
In 1984 Reagan promised a litmus test for federal judicial appointments. Down with affirmative action and civil-rights law enforcement and reproductive freedom.
Sadly, he kept his promise.
In 1988, Bush followed in his mentor`s footsteps. The affirmative action programs begun in the Democratic presidency of Lyndon Johnson and nurtured in the Republican presidencies of Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, were slated for smothering.
Sadly, Bush kept Reagan`s promise.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) was established to enforce Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Without EEOC the Civil Rights Act has little meaning, few teeth and no power.
It is the law that the EEOC must enforce the Civil Rights Act. Any lawyer knows that; any graduate of Yale Law School knows that. Clarence Thomas, the most recent nominee for the Supreme Court, knew that.
From 1982 to 1990 he was the chairman of the EEOC, and from 1982 to 1990 the EEOC ground to a halt. The screeching of brakes on equal rights in the workplace was deafening. Initiatives that selected major national employers and labor unions as targets for special investigations, based on the employment patterns of women and minorities, were phased out.
During 1974 and 1975, EEOC had investigated such employers as Sears, Ford, General Electric, General Motors and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and set goals and timetables to improve hiring of women ad minorities. I was national president of the National Organization for Women then, and attended negotiating sessions in Washington, D.C., at EEOC headquarters and in regional offices all over the country.
With Clarence Thomas as chairman, the EEOC followed the Reagan administration`s cue: relax. (Thomas has said he is against affirmative action quotas and does not believe in government intervention.)
His adherence to following the law, the president says, is why he was nominated. Bush says Thomas is the best, most qualified man in the country for the position of Supreme Court Justice.
This is silly. Clarence Thomas is not the most qualified person for the job.
Thurgood Marshall had faith in the law: At a time when others who shared his passion for racial justice were riding the buses, and marching in the streets, he trusted the law. Marshall fought the civil rights revolution in the courtroom. His replacement, too, should believe in following the letter of the law.
Who among us can dislike this man? Surely not I. Who among us can hear the facts of his life of poverty in Georgia and remain dry-eyed? Surely not I. Perhaps the setbacks we are getting under the Reagan-Bush judicial juggernaut will wake up Sleeping Beauty. I predict that the myth of ”post-feminism”-the backlash against feminism-has perished. I predict that the Congress, state legislatures and the public now finally will recognize the need for the Equal Rights Amendment and it will be ratified. I predict the mobilization of women to a new level, aroused thankfully from the lethargy that may have permitted a retreat to non-political games and hobbies.
This writer cannot judge Clarence Thomas. I never experienced racial discrimination and my house always had plumbing. But, the Constitution as my witness, I know that as we cannot judge him, Clarence Thomas should definitely not be in a position to judge us.
