Kakki wrote: "What mischief did they do? Please enlighten me because I don't recall issues regarding those laws during the Reagan administration. I'm not being obstinate - I truly am not aware of such issues. As for the current AG Janet Reno, many will argue that she has also facilitated some mischief in the area of civil rights in the form of Waco, Elian Gonzalez, the FBI files that were gathered up improperly on employees and others in the Clinton White House, etc. I may be completely naive, but I just don't see how a handful of people can successfully overturn long-standing laws such as abortion, on their political whim. I just can't see them being able to do that and get away with it under our current system" RE: Janet Reno: Exactly. I almost mentioned her in my original post, but decided to stick to one side of the political aisle! But conservatives would probably say that she, her department, and her picks have done precisely what I accuse Reynolds and Starr of doing. RE: their actions in the 1980's: I knew someone was going to ask me for specifics, and probably, you! I could give you much more if I had a chance to rout through materials for a class I took in law school over ten years ago. But my recollection is that the Reagan Justice Department pretty much gutted what had been the interpretation of affirmative action, in particular, by stressing racial equality as "color-blind": i.e., by denying the earlier argument that not all groups in the U.S. start out on an level playing field. My memory is that the DOJ, and Reynolds in particular, aggressively pursued this theory in the policies the department supported, the cases it chose to pursue, how far it chose to pursue them, and the persistence with which it did so. And new case law was indeed made. I am sorry that I don't have more specifics for you now, but I could get them. It just might take some time! I agree with you that one person can't single-handedly change the law, but one person in a powerful position can appoint and support many people who, working together, over a prolonged period of time and united behind specific policies, can. You also wrote: "I agree he needs to throw some real bones to the opposition, but how can people so easily predict what these appointees are going to do before they have even been confirmed, much less actually spent a day on the job." Again, I think (unfortunately) that that's politics as usual. It was done with Clinton's nominees in '93, and it was probably be done with the nominees of whichever new administration takes over in 2004, or 2008. Mary P.
