A Race Case? Duck And Cover.
A firefighters' suit could trouble the Obama administration.
What began as a reverse discrimination lawsuit filed by 20 New Haven, Conn., firefighters five years ago could become a long-term political headache for the Obama administration. The case involves a complaint filed by 19 white firefighters and one Hispanic who were rejected for promotions despite passing a civil-service test. After the lead plaintiff, firefighter Frank Ricci, who had hoped to become a lieutenant, and his fellow plaintiffs got high scores, the city scrapped the test and promoted no one rather than give them the jobs over black candidates who had earned lower scores. When the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case in January, the Obama administration was faced with a dilemma: how to handle a case with the potential to stir up old controversies over "racial quotas"—an issue that Obama, as a candidate, made clear he wanted to get beyond? The case's sensitivity was only heightened by Attorney General Eric Holder's recent remark about the United States still being a "nation of cowards" on racial matters—a comment that was deemed needlessly divisive by some and refreshingly candid by others.
A Justice Department official, who asked not to be identified discussing a sensitive matter, confirmed that DOJ lawyers had consulted with White House counsel Gregory Craig's office about how to handle the case. Then in late February, Justice quietly filed a brief that another lawyer involved, who also asked for anonymity, called a "political straddle." The brief for the most part supported the city of New Haven's position: it had the right to toss out the test if there was a reasonable basis to believe the city might later be sued by black applicants for an insufficiently diverse fire force. However, Justice also argued that the case should be "remanded" to U.S. district court for further fact-finding, specifically to determine whether the city's explanation for tossing the test was a "pretext for intentional racial discrimination" against the white firefighters. Conservatives pounced on the filing, arguing that Justice's position—if adopted by the high court—would reopen the door to "politically correct discrimination" and "racial preferences."
The legal squabble could have an impact on the next Supreme Court nominee. One of three judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals panel that originally upheld New Haven's position was Sonia Sotomayor, a Hispanic who is often mentioned as being on Obama's shortlist for the next open Supreme Court seat. Conservatives ripped into Sotomayor's handling of the case, citing criticism from one of her colleagues, Clinton appointee José Cabranes, who argued that the opinion that she and her two colleagues issued was misleading because it made no mention of the "weighty" constitutional issues at stake. If Obama ultimately does name her to the court, said Ed Whelan, director of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, a conservative advocacy group, the New Haven case "should be a big strike against her."
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Michael Isikoff has been an award-winning investigative correspondent for Newsweek since 2004. He has written extensively on the U.S. government's war on terrorism, the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, presidential politics and other national issues. His book, "Hubris: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, and the Selling of the Iraq War," co-written with David Corn, was an instant New York Times best-seller when it was published in September, 2006. The book was hailed by the New York Times Book Review as "fascinating reading" and "the most comprehensive account of the White House's political machinations" in the run up to the war in Iraq. Since January 2009, Isikoff has been an MSNBC contributor, making regular appearances on the Rachel Maddow Show and Hardball w/ Chris Matthews.
Ever since the events of September 11, Isikoff has broken repeated stories about the U.S. government's war on terror and won numerous journalism awards. His blog "DeClassified: Investigative Reporting in Real Time," which appears regularly on Newsweek's Web site and is written with MarkHosenball, has become a must-read for senior U.S. intelligence officials. Isikoff and Hosenball won the 2005 award from the Society of Professional Journalists for best investigative reporting online.
Isikoff's June 2002 Newsweek cover story on U.S. intelligence failures that preceded the 9-11 terror attacks, along with a series of related articles, was honored with the Investigative Reporters and Editors top prize for investigative reporting in magazine journalism. He was honored, along with a team of Newsweek reporters, by the Society of Professional Journalists for coverage of the Abu Ghraib scandal. For that coverage, Isikoff obtained exclusive internal White House, Justice Department and State Department memos showing how decisions made at the highest levels of the Bush administration led to abuses in the interrogation of terror suspects. Isikoff was also part of a reporting team that earned Newsweek the National Magazine Award for General Excellence in 2002, the highest award in magazine journalism, for their coverage of the aftermath of the September 11 terror attacks.
Isikoff's exclusive reporting on the Monica Lewinsky scandal gained him national attention in 1998, including profiles in The New York Times and The Washington Post and a guest appearance on "Late Show with David Letterman." His coverage of the events that lead to President Bill Clinton's impeachment earned Newsweek the prestigious National Magazine Award in the Reporting category in 1999. Isikoff's reporting also won the National Headliner Award, the Edgar A. Poe Award presented by the White House Correspondents Association and the Gerald R. Ford Journalism Prize for Reporting on the Presidency. In 2001, Isikoff was named on a list of "most influential journalists" in the nation's capital by Washingtonian magazine.
Isikoff is the author of "Uncovering Clinton: A Reporter's Story," a book that chronicled his own reporting of the Lewinsky story and was hailed by a critic for The Washington Post-Los Angeles Times news service as "the absolutely essential narrative of the scandal with revelations that no one would have thought possible." The book, also a New York Times bestseller, was named Best Non-Fiction Book of 1999 by the Book of the Month Club.
Isikoff came to Newsweek from The Washington Post, where he had been a reporter since September 1981. There he covered the Justice Department and the Persian Gulf War, reported on international drug operations in Latin America and worked on the Post's financial news desk. Isikoff graduated from Washington University with a B.A. in 1974 and received a Masters in Journalism from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism in 1976.
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