Civil Rights Panel Blocks Bush Appointee From Taking Seat

Amid a swirl of angry asides and conflicting legal interpretations, the U.S. Civil Rights Commission clashed Friday with the White House and refused to seat one of President Bush’s appointees to the panel.

By repeated 4-3 votes, the commission blocked attempts to let Peter N. Kirsanow, an African American labor lawyer from Cleveland, take part in its deliberations. Kirsanow sat in the front row of the audience, flanked by his lawyers, and sought to add his vote to the proceedings.

The commission chairwoman, Mary Frances Berry, ignored him.

The dispute revolves around interpretation of two statutes, one from 1983 and another measure from 1994, delineating the terms of members.

The Bush administration argues that the term of commissioner Victoria Wilson expired in late November. Wilson, with Berry’s support, argues that she has several more years on her term.

Wilson took her seat at the commission’s horseshoe-shaped table during Friday’s meeting. Her vote was counted in each tally.

The Justice Department planned to seek immediate approval from a federal court to have Kirsanow declared the panel’s commissioner and to have Wilson removed. Wilson was appointed by President Clinton early in 2000 to replace A. Leon Higginbotham Jr., who died.

At issue is whether Wilson was entitled only to serve out Higginbotham’s term or whether her appointment gave her a full six-year term.

The larger issue, according to Berry, is whether the commission can maintain its independence from the White House.

With Friday’s clash fully anticipated, the White House had Kirsanow sworn in Thursday night, bringing a Washington, D.C., Superior Court judge to the White House to administer the oath in office of White House Counsel Alberto R. Gonzales.

“We were disappointed that the commission did not recognize Mr. Kirsanow today. He is a lawful member of the commission, and we will continue to seek to have him seated,” said White House spokeswoman Anne Womack.

In a short statement to reporters after the meeting, Kirsanow said, “I’m a little disappointed and chagrined that I didn’t get to vote on any of the agenda items.” He did not answer questions.

Within seconds of the start of the meeting in a cramped, windowless room on the fifth floor of a downtown Washington office building, the issue came to a head. Two commissioners, Abigail Thernstrom and Jennifer C. Braceras, sought to have Kirsanow seated. They repeatedly referred to him as “Commissioner Kirsanow.”

Berry ruled them out of order, setting off a half-hour of debate, votes, repeated charges that statutes were being misread, and recognition by both sides in the dispute that it will likely require resolution in court.

Braceras, participating in her first meeting as a recent Bush appointee, called for the commission to adjourn, saying that to proceed with other items on the agenda without resolving Kirsanow’s status “would be foolhardy.”

Berry and Braceras continued to argue, with Berry finally telling the new member to stop interrupting and to raise her hand if she wanted to be recognized.

The panel was established in 1957 by President Eisenhower to investigate allegations of discrimination. It has no enforcement powers and a relatively limited budget of $9 million.

It drew attention earlier this year--and displeasure from Bush’s political camp--when its look at the 2000 election dispute in Florida concluded that Bush’s election stemmed from “a pattern and practice of injustice, ineptitude and inefficiency” in the state.

Berry, appointed by President Carter, has been a member for nearly half the commission’s life.

President Reagan tried to have her removed.

“He told the press I served at his pleasure, and I wasn’t giving him any pleasure,” said Berry, a tenured history professor at the University of Pennsylvania.