Guinier Asserts Clinton Was Wrong : Civil rights: She says her nomination should not have been withdrawn. She suggests the President, others misinterpreted her writings. Black leaders voice anger.

C. Lani Guinier, making the spirited defense of her academic writings that she desperately wanted to deliver before the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Friday that President Clinton was wrong to withdraw her nomination as head of the Justice Department’s civil rights division.

“I think that the President and many others have misinterpreted my writings,” she told a news conference. “I think I represent an important and mainstream tradition that this Administration is also committed to. That is vigorous enforcement of the civil rights laws as passed by Congress.”

Guinier’s statements came on a day in which Clinton made no public appearances but did meet privately with an outraged contingent of civil rights leaders who demanded that he “give more vigorous leadership and not run from a fight.”

“We told him of the pain, of the disappointment, of the frustration of what we think was political violence against a wonderful young woman and against civil rights and against racial injustice,” said the Rev. Joseph Lowery, chairman of the National Black Leadership Forum.

Clinton withdrew Guinier’s nomination Thursday night after public signals from the White House failed to persuade her to withdraw. Clinton said he had concluded that his former Yale classmate, now a University of Pennsylvania professor, had written a law review article containing “ideals which I myself cannot embrace.”

By Friday, the White House was feeling the fallout. “They may have a lot of trouble over at the White House trying to find another black, woman, civil rights lawyer, if that is what they are hoping to fill that position with,” said one civil rights activist.

“I don’t know of anyone fitting that description who couldn’t be labeled--rightly or wrongly--a ‘quota queen’ (as Guinier was dubbed by conservative opponents). If that is the new litmus test, then nobody is going to pass muster.”

At her press conference, Guinier--flanked by her husband, Nolan Bowie, a communications professor at Temple University, and her young son, Nicholas--declared:

“I have never been in favor of quotas. I could not be, knowing my father’s experience.

“He was a victim of a racial quota, a quota of one,” at Harvard College, she said.

He “was denied any financial aid, on the grounds that one black student had already been awarded a full scholarship. . . . He was not allowed to live in the dormitories on the grounds that no black except for the relative of a United States senator, had ever resided there.”

Guinier, 43, offered support for the Administration and respect for the President, expressing hope that she and Clinton would remain personal friends after what became an embarrassing episode for both of them.

“We disagree about this but we do agree on many things,” she said. “He believes in racial healing and so do I.”

However, Guinier pointedly stressed that anyone--including Clinton and her political opponents--is badly mistaken who believes that her views are undemocratic. “I have always believed in one person, one vote,” she said, leaning forward for emphasis. “Nothing I have written is inconsistent with that.”

She offered a mild rebuke of Clinton’s argument that he disagreed with her published views and would not have nominated her if he had read her opinions first. “I think the President knows what I stand for and I think the President agrees with what I stand for,” she said.

Even as Guinier was delivering her statement, Justice Department officials resumed their search for an assistant attorney general for civil rights. Justice officials explained that they were not simply returning to the list from which Guinier was chosen but would consider a host of new candidates as well.

Among the names that surfaced was Lynne Walker, who one source said was on the original list. Walker, now with the Ford Foundation in New York, was a section chief in the civil rights division during the Jimmy Carter Administration. Like Guinier, Walker is black and female.

Guinier lost support among senators and, eventually, within the White House after conservative critics tagged her as a “quota queen” for espousing controversial opinions in academic journals.

White House aides said Friday that the controversial parts of Guinier’s writings were flagged by mid-level officials in the White House counsel’s office. But, the officials said, those concerns were never relayed to the President, either because senior officials did not realize how serious the potential political problems were or because they believed that Clinton, who had known Guinier for many years, already knew about her positions.

After the furor arose, however, Clinton reconsidered his choice. One adviser said he asked the President: “What do you really want to do? Do you feel comfortable going ahead with this?”

The adviser declared: “And it was clear he wasn’t comfortable with it. We walked through the consequences with him of withdrawing or leaving her name in nomination. His view was that he was willing to take three to five weeks of hearings and go down with the nomination but not based on ideas he couldn’t support and that he thought would be divisive and polarizing.”

Another adviser said that Clinton thought that if he withdrew the nomination it would help “clear the path” for Congress to consider the budget reconciliation bill without being distracted by divisive hearings.

Although some of the civil rights activists who met with Clinton Friday were restrained in their comments, others were more confrontational.

“We are deeply disappointed that the President has found it necessary to turn his back on his nominee and friend and the many constituents who forcefully supported her and supported him,” said C. Delores Tucker, who chairs the National Political Congress of Black Women, an umbrella group for more than 70 national organizations.

Others attending the meeting were Barbara Arnwine, executive director of the Lawyers Committee on Civil Rights Under Law; Dorothy Height, president of the National Council of Negro Women; Elaine Jones, executive director of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund; William Lucey, an official of the AFL-CIO; Eddie Williams, executive director of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, and Jewel Jackson-McCabe, president of the National Coalition of 100 Black Women. Also present were Atty. Gen. Janet Reno and Solicitor General Drew S. Days III.

Clinton placed telephone calls to members of the House Black Caucus to explain his decision and urge their support in the legislative battles ahead. The call apparently eased some of the intense feelings that black lawmakers expressed immediately after Clinton withdrew the nomination.

Rep. Kweisi Mfume (D-Md.) had threatened that the Congressional Black Caucus, which he leads, might seek revenge by withholding support for Clinton’s economic legislation. But after talking with Clinton, Mfume wavered over whether the caucus would attempt to make the White House pay a price for its handling of Guinier.

He said that Clinton’s withdrawal of Guinier’s nomination was “problematic” and “troublesome.” But Mfume refrained from issuing any new threats, saying that black lawmakers are not yet “prepared to go from staunch allies to arch enemies.”

As the tall, dark-suited Guinier and her family strode into and out of the Justice Department meeting room where she met the press, staff attorneys and department employees lined the hallways to catch a glimpse of her and shout their support.

Carl Stern, Reno’s chief spokesman, said that he arranged for Guinier to meet with reporters in the Justice Department conference room after space could not be found elsewhere.

“There’s no hostility,” Stern said. “We like her. We wanted to be hospitable.”

Reno did a series of television interviews Friday morning, explaining her firm support for Guinier at the same time she backed the President’s decision.

She said she had told Guinier “that I would support the President in his ultimate decision because I think he was trying to determine what was best for America, what was best for the future of civil rights enforcement. But I supported her nomination.”

Reno said that she had read Guinier’s controversial writings and talked with her about them. “I discussed them with her and considered that they were thought-provoking writings of an academic,” Reno said. “I was impressed by her civil rights record. I was impressed by what she had done in the courts. I was impressed by her abilities as a trial lawyer.”

Reno said that Clinton was equally impressed but faced the problem “that her writings had become the issue and he did not feel that they would contribute to the healing process that is so important on these issues.”

A source familiar with Reno’s thinking later said: “Her estimate had always been that Lani’s strength as a litigator would be understood by senators as outweighing negative things she had written.”