White House Weighs Suit Over Prop. 209

The Clinton administration said Friday that it is considering the possibility of filing a lawsuit or joining a legal challenge to California’s Proposition 209.

The White House confirmed its interest in a legal challenge after the Rev. Jesse Jackson met with top Clinton aides to seek administration help in blocking implementation of the ballot initiative, passed by the state’s voters Tuesday. It repeals the state’s affirmative action programs.

White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry said that the administration’s response to the California initiative is a matter of urgent high-level discussions between the White House and Justice Department.

“We need to get serious about the whole question,” McCurry said. He indicated that the administration will soon decide whether to initiate a legal challenge to the ballot proposal or file friend-of-the-court briefs in support of an independent lawsuit.

Senior presidential advisor George Stephanopoulos is coordinating the White House response to Proposition 209, McCurry said. Stephanopoulos oversaw the administration’s six-month review of affirmative action programs in 1995, resulting in the president’s declaration that such efforts should be revised but not discarded.

In an interview late Friday, Jackson said he met earlier in the day with Harold Ickes, White House deputy chief of staff, and Assistant Atty. Gen. Deval Patrick, who oversees the Justice Department’s civil rights division, to plead with the administration to file suit to stop implementation of Proposition 209.

“I want Justice to intervene with a lawsuit,” Jackson said.

The ballot initiative, approved by a margin of 54% to 46%, is the target of at least three court actions filed within hours after the results were announced. Advocates and opponents agree that the courts ultimately will determine the legality of using race in allotting state-controlled resources and programs.

Proposition 209 forbids state institutions to consider race and gender in contracting, hiring, promotions and public education decisions. But state government officials have indicated in public statements and internal memos that they intend to delay full implementation until the law winds its way through the courts.

Jackson said he is unwilling to wait that long and wants the federal government to throw its influence behind supporters of affirmative action.

“This is a classic ‘states rights’ act challenging federal authority,” Jackson said, recalling the battle cry of civil rights advocates during the struggle against legal segregation in the South during the 1950s and 1960s.

“If Alabama or Mississippi had done this, it would have been immediately seen as an attempt to resurrect the [segregationist] South. But this is California.”

Jackson said that he came away from his meeting with White House officials hopeful that the administration would do as he requested. “They told me they were going to look into it,” he said. “But we’re going to have to wait and see what they will do.”

Jackson praised Clinton for having repeatedly cited his opposition to Proposition 209 during his campaign. But now, he said, Clinton must do more than just speak up against the measure.

With the election behind him, Clinton should be more receptive to administration officials who have urged him to act more forcefully in defense of affirmative action, Jackson said.