Aide Loses Post After Criticizing Lungren : Demotion: The head of the state Justice Department’s civil rights section was ousted last month but no reason was given until Thursday.

A state prosecutor who helped break the all-male club membership barrier has been removed from her position as the head of the Department of Justice’s civil rights section because she criticized Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren, a top official said Thursday.

Lungren ousted Marian M. Johnston from the post last month without giving a reason. But on Thursday, when asked for details, Chief Deputy Atty. Gen. David Stirling said, “It had nothing to do with her competency. It had to do with her attitude towards the attorney general and his staff.

“She questioned (Lungren’s) political motives and expressed lack of confidence in his executive staff,” Stirling said in an interview. “That (criticism) was just not acceptable.”

Stirling added that Johnston will continue to be a deputy attorney general and can choose to stay in the same section or move on to another area, as she desires. She will lose no salary or benefits, according to the chief deputy.

Johnston, asked why she believed she was removed from her post, said: “I don’t know why, and if I did, I would have no comment.” She added that she is undecided whether to accept another departmental position.

“This all has been very upsetting to me,” she said. Asked if she felt she had been critical of Lungren, Johnston said, “I don’t think I have said anything publicly like that.”

Johnston was appointed supervising deputy of the civil rights section by former Democratic Atty. Gen. John K. Van de Kamp, who did not seek reelection in order to run, unsuccessfully, for governor.

“I assume we will name her replacement at some point,” Stirling said. “We have not done so yet.”

As a Justice Department lawyer, Johnston helped win a landmark 1987 case in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that membership in male-only clubs could be legally challenged by those seeking to open their doors to women.

Stirling said Johnston voiced criticism of Lungren and the staff to colleagues in response to a press conference called by the attorney general in late July. At that press conference, Lungren said the state would “vigorously pursue” a lawsuit accusing the federal census of undercounting the California population.

If a higher count were used, California would gain eight rather than seven new congressional seats and would be given an increased slice of federal funds that are distributed on the basis of population.

“Her (Johnston’s) remarks came up in connection with that press conference,” said Stirling, a former Republican assemblyman who also served as general counsel to the Agricultural Labor Relations Board.

Neither Stirling nor Johnston would elaborate on the comments she was accused of making.