Help Still Wanted at the Justice Dept. : Second name drops out in civil rights post hunt

President Clinton has stumbled again on civil rights. There is still no chief of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division-- nearly a year into his Administration.

The latest casualty, John Payton, a corporate lawyer who tackled tough civil rights cases on a pro bono basis and chalked up impressive victories, has withdrawn his name from consideration. Although Clinton never formally nominated Payton, the Administration did float the black attorney’s name in the usual pre-nomination way.

Payton ran into trouble because he admitted that he often did not vote. Several members of the Congressional Black Congress, the elected officials whose support is key to any civil rights nomination in a Democratic administration, could not square his failure to register and vote with the sacrifice of those who fought so hard to gain voting rights for black Americans. The ensuing controversy has further delayed the process of filling the post.

Clinton sacrificed his first choice, Lani Guinier, a brilliant but controversial law professor who won many important civil rights cases when she worked for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. He withdrew that nomination after she was dubbed a “quota queen,” an erroneous but politically lethal moniker.

Clinton’s refusal to stand by Guinier, a respected black attorney, has discouraged several other lawyers with good backgrounds for the job. They bristle at the White House’s failure to stanch the conservative feeding frenzy in the Guinier nomination. Nor is the retreat over Payton likely to entice other well-qualified lawyers to turn out in droves to apply for the job.

Drew S. Days III, who is currently Clinton’s solicitor general, was President Jimmy Carter’s civil rights chief and the first black person to hold that post. Days, another Legal Defense Fund alumnus, aggressively challenged voting rights infractions and vigorously strengthened other federal protections. Guinier was on his team at Justice.

President Ronald Reagan’s person in that job was William Bradford Reynolds, who perhaps was most notable for leading an attempt to erode voting rights, fair employment and school desegregation efforts. Through vigorous legal fights when that Administration thought victory possible, and through delaying tactics when it thought otherwise, the Reagan team misused the post to roll back gains achieved in courts and in Congress.

The Justice Department is supposed to enforce, not weaken, federal civil rights laws. The Clinton Administration needs to put a tough and experienced litigator in the job as soon as possible.