Bush Appointment to Rights Panel Prompts Standoff

When President Bush named a black Cleveland attorney to the U.S. Civil Rights Commission on Wednesday, the move hardly seemed likely to produce a standoff that may require the services of federal marshals to resolve.

But that prospect looms because the chairwoman of the independent commission, Mary Frances Berry, has vowed to block the appointment, calling it unlawful.

Alberto R. Gonzales, Bush’s White House counsel, quoted her as having told him in a private telephone conversation that the White House will have to send in U.S. Marshals to seat the president’s man.

But in an interview Thursday, Berry said Gonzales had grossly misquoted her, although she reiterated her refusal to administer the oath of office to Bush’s appointee.

A showdown could come today when the commission convenes in Washington for its monthly meeting. Bush’s appointee and the woman he would replace both plan to attend.

At issue is whether a vacancy exists on the eight-member commission, established by Congress in 1957 to fight discrimination based on race, color, religion, gender, age, disability or national origin.

In naming Peter N. Kirsanow to the commission, the White House said he would fill a vacancy created by Victoria Wilson, who was appointed by President Clinton early in 2000 to serve out the remaining term of federal judge A. Leon Higginbotham Jr., who had died.

The White House says that term expired on Nov. 29, a conclusion based on an analysis prepared by the Justice Department’s legal counsel’s office. But both Berry and Wilson’s attorney, Leon Friedman, a constitutional law professor at Hofstra University, maintain that Wilson, an executive at the Alfred A. Knopf Inc. publishing company, is entitled to serve a full six-year term.

Berry and Friedman said in interviews Thursday that the White House is mistakenly relying on an obsolete statute that said someone replacing a commissioner who departs prematurely may only serve out the remainder of that person’s term. But the commission’s authorizing statute was amended in 1994 so that every appointment is for a full six-year term, they said.

“This is a legal issue, and our counsel tells us that the law is clear--in plain English,” Berry said.

The controversy unfolds against the backdrop of the disputed 2000 presidential election.

Earlier this year, the civil rights commission concluded that Bush’s election was the result of “a pattern and practice of injustice, ineptitude and inefficiency” in Florida--a finding that hardly pleased the White House.

“This is an attempt to muzzle us,” Berry charged. “They’re very unhappy to see what we did with the Florida report. This issue is about the independence and the integrity of the commission.”

White House press secretary Ari Fleischer disputed Berry’s contention, saying: “That is not the context in which [the appointment] issue arises.”

He added: “It is very troubling for any member of any commission for any reason, whether they are supportive or they oppose the president, to refuse to follow the rule of law.”

Fleischer said the White House “is going to proceed in a cordial fashion” and chided Berry for using “bellicose language” in her conversation with Gonzales.

However, Berry said she had simply asked Gonzales: “What do you plan to do, force me to do it, send in the marshals?”

“It was a question,” Berry added.

In her work for the commission, Berry has criticized every president since Jimmy Carter, who appointed her. President Reagan fired her but had to reinstate her after a lawsuit.

The appointment of Kirsanow would likely hinder Berry’s power over the commission. He and another Bush appointee set to join the commission would give it four members who lean Republican and four who lean Democratic.

Kirsanow, former labor counsel for the city of Cleveland, did not return a telephone call seeking comment.