Show t- It'‘rvqogryv-4wvki'lw-iw4w-d'"""-'- ' 1 44 I (colvfmTirlr4zrITAJMT Editorial Desk: 237-201- Constitution Became Victim of Gulf War da'beeiattralitZribunt E111 : 1 1 T By ALS is at least Rep Bill Orton civil the about correct rights partially legislation creating such a stir in the nation's capital Neither of the major proposals considered by the US House of Representatives last week does the sub- ject absolute justice - But when he says the bills would "do little to resolve the problems- and much to generate hot litigationthe Utah congressman overlooks the recent evolution of American civil rights law What's more the flawed federal legislation is subject to refinement Among other problems proposals from House Democrats and the White House would perpetuate inequitable treatment of workers who might seek punitive damages in discrimination cases Current law allows only racial minorities to sue for such damages The bill rejected last week would have permitted women to sue for damages in cases of sexual harassment but not for sexual discrimination and Bush-backe- d would have capped damages at Democrats in legislation in the House Wednesday also have agreed to limit punitive damages for discrimination against women religious minorities and disabled employees Contrary to claims by both Democrats and the White House one bill doesn't prevent hiring quotas much more than the other Both might encourage employers to use a numerical standard to protect themselves from lawsuits but neither is so radical as to threaten the economy or trigger an avalanche of reverse discrimination cases In fact the proposals essentially would restore job protections established under the Civil Rights Act of 1964 but removed in a series of 1989 Supreme Court decisions For example both bills would require that employers prove they have legitimate business reasons for discriminating against types of minorities but neither shifts the full burden of proof to employers lndivid $150000 adopted 273-15- 8 uals would have to demonstrate that they were intentionally discriminated against Litigation was not a major problem before 1989 and the Supreme Court rulings have blocked civil rights progress by making it more difficult for minorities to sue for employment fairness The National Employment Lawyers Association reports that 38 percent of surveyed members have reduced the number of cases they handle or decline to handle them altogether because they now are too difficult to win And 64 percent of the civil rights lawyers interviewed by the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund say they have been deterred from fighting discriminatory job rules If combatants would cut out the political rhetoric and seriously seek compromise a reasonable repair of federal civil rights law still could occur President Bush has vowed to veto the House bill which fell 15 votes short s of the majority needed for an override So ifs now up to senators to break the deadlock Already Republican senators are making some promising suggestions Sen John Danforth would separate the issues into three bills One would reverse the court decisions that made it more difficult for minorities to prove discrimination Another would establish middle-grounstandards for employers to meet in justifying hiring practices and a third would set damage limits An especially intriguing feature -- one that could further control the litigation Rep Orton is worried about — calls for payment of punitive damages to the government to fight job bias If Congress and President Bush are serious about ensuring equal job opportunities for all Americans they will seek a compromise like the one Sen Danforth proposes Even imperfect legislation would be better than the of the past two years two-third- o d back-slidin- court-approve- - - I d g best ed along The plaintiffs have with the state attorneys tauntingly ar e -- decade ago AIDS wasn part cf the American vocabulary Todat one of the most feared words in contemporary language In the 10 years since the disease first was recognized more than I V000 Americans have died from it BY Year's end that total probably wil top 150000 A million other people in this country are thought te carry the HIV virus which incubates for an average if 10 years in a person s system before erupting into acquired immune deficiency syndrome Beyond the many persona tragedies it has caused the fatal diseLe has doue many thirgs It has forced Americans confront 'weir attitudes atiHat homosexuality (if necessity it has turned the tide of the sexual revolution even as it has made compraensive sex educat: essential it has 4Ivanized medica: hers causin them to focus Iht:r A '3 7 - ie' -- '- - - - r asexico By Bodo llo F Acuna Fok THE LOS ANGELES TIMES LOS ANGELES — Congress has now put negotiations for free trade with Mexico on the "fast track" giving the Bush administration a tremendous edge that could result in a railroaded treaty Now anyone who raises objections will be accused of Mexico-bashinThere are however real concerns that a treaty unchecked by vigorous debate could do damage to the interests of working-class Latmos on both sides of the bor- g der In the debate over " authorization some Latino organizations such as the National Council of La Raza seemed more interested in assurances that Latino businesses would gel export privileges than in how Latino workers would be affected They became administration cheerleaders based on the president's mere promise "Trust me Questions left unanswered: What kind of growth will free trade produce7 What kind of development will it generate" In whose interest is it being pursued" President Carlos Salinas de Gotari is hyping free tradc as the key to Mexico's future 11 solidifies his program of privatization deregulation and attraction of for "fast-track- t'' I a Itt 0' - o' 0 ‘ I? a N 4- a al 0 ' 0 v ''''''' 40°' eAdcr- - ''' - - ''''''''''''' 1 " T11- '00irl -1 - 0' - vis:' ' t' - - P1 — 1 - - 4w- -- ti oic asp - '1 ) A g: r Jr 'ipo - ' beginning to end of the crisis was that he possessed perfect freedom of action When under pressure from Congress he invited it to support his policy he by no means suggested that Congress could support what the policy was to be He only acknowledged that his policy would be strengthened if it was supported by the members of Congress In other words he invited their applause In the legislative branch then there was a silent surrender of a clearly defined constitutional power accompanied by an ambiguous assertion of a lesser power (Some congressmen said that the resolution was an equivalent" of a declaration of war and some said it was not) In the executive branch there was an assertion of a power explicitly denied it in the Constitution Had the opposition to the congressional Says Salinas who has eign investment bought the rhetoric of globalization "What we want is to find ourselves in rhythm with the worldIn Mexico free trade with the United States and Canada is being sold as a new religion packaged in a mystic nationalism that pretends to defend national sovereignty President Bush wants to support Salinas the most Mexican president in modern times Bush and GOP leaders see free trade as an opportunity to bolster Salinas and his PRI (institutional Revolutionary Party) as well as to Republicanize the Latino middle class Is it Mexico-bashinto observe that Salinas and Bush's records hardly are the basis for trusting that US corporations will act responsibly 7 The "maquiladora situation suggests otherwise Those factories where foreign (mostly US) companies make goods for the US market ignore the health and safety of their workers with impunity The Rio Grande is a toxic horror The American Medical Association has called the maquila zone "a virtual cesspool In hopes of quieting North American enSalinas in March shut a vironmentalists state-ruoil refinery one of the country's g n RiTAb r F 4 fr"12:4W4P) --- 01'!!tif- ibitk ''2'1:7-- t - i 0164 - T '474- " 7:44-irp"- i ' '--f'' o': All "Ok - - 1:'-" - - - ' -- ' °' ' jop07 - -- ' --- -- r 7----4- or iit) 0 7 AlvM:"1filelit— irill"P- A wit 1 4 1121111 ' -'11tit1 : tit 41 I - :i'--- a os "-'- '' iffmgieiIlIlbtt r i r'-- : 0 t I '' I -- Ire '' 'e - t12t:V to t —' Pir - 0' ' titesson ki - - 4 I ' 1 - te k L:) 1 a - - " -: 0 ' l'ESS- ir - 70- C 7 1 ' — lo : CCit ' A '1- -- :i 11 '7 - 4nreo' 'if t i s 9' 4''0 riZDIXIV 1 ( NW — - 0 - - - k!riLtit 1' toa more resolution won have failed and votes it would constitutional crisis would have ensued a crisis in which not only the executive and the legislative branches but also in all likelihood the judicial branch would have been engaged in deciding the constitutional merits of the case As it turned out Congress bowed to the president's fait accompli and the constitutional question was never decided Given the strength of the president's determination to ignore the Constitution and the weakness of Congress will to defend it this particular omission is probably something to be grateful for Jonathan Schell is a columnist for w orkers Rights Pact M ay Ignore TuT T1 7 4r: ' 34' A - 14 - stiCr4V4tr - 'I 'i4 ell' to" - -' 10!: rI - 4"- "s stk efforts and 1f(7'fl‘-- mere accountable to the public It has triggered debate over priorities in research and health care funding AIDS has inspired a ne-- respect for science while illustrating its limitations The virus that causes AIDS has been identified but no cure is in sight Treatments nave allf!‘Aed doctors to proloriE the lives and quaiity of life of patients The disease has brought out the hest and worst in Americans nspiring erance and compassion fear and cour age hatred and acceptance Marl- of thee emotions tiE are playing out Many questions remair unansvke!-e'The futur i of the AIDS epidemic is utC'ertain Prospects a!( bleak but no! least lb( shock and 101pides hysteria are past Nov :IA- nation niti! i'lletillon on reasoned chwoes tempered by compassion A': ' t Je° 7A war-declari- Even this much congressional intervention was too much for George Bush To him it seems the word -- authorizes" smacked too much of a congressional assertion of potential control (even though not exercised in this case) His position from illig ' : power es Or 1 The members of Congress regarded their debate as a grand and glorious assertion of their constitutional prerogatives Historians looking back are more likely to remember it as the moment when the Congress finally surrendered its power to declare war So complete was this surrender that few even noticed it had happened Admittedly Congress found a substitute for its ignored power: a joint resolution that "authorized" the president to go to war It is important though to note the difference between a declaration of war and an authorization A declaration of war is a command If the president is the commander in chief of the armed forces then the Congress by decla-in- g war becomes for that moment the commander of the commander in chief As the body representing the people it says to him: Go and make war If after receiving that order the president did not go to war he would certainly be impeachable A resolution of Congress is quite different It has no binding effect The president can entirely ignore it if he wishes The influence over the president is even weaker when the resolution takes the form of an authorization which even if it were legally binding would still leave the decision up to the president Hence a resolution authorizing war not only falls short of being a declaration of war it expressly hands over the decision to the president Such a resolution in fact is not even-a- n expression of Congress' wishes in the matter of the war It formally abandons the decision to the president who then is free to go to war or not as he pleas- - t‘ f'lik'''4 war-declari- A Decade of AIDS I 1 guing that "Jane Doe" reminds "Jane Liberty" of a victim or the words "Do a deer a female deer" from "Sound of Music" The state attorneys have countered that people are unlikely to associate the plaintiff with a female deer Come on The name game obviously is part of the state's strategy to wear down confound or disqualify those who want the abortion law declared unconstitutional Realistically though opponents of the law including national groups will not be sidetracked by such trivia They will have their day in court no matter the cost to the ACLU or the state and they will address the meaningful questions about the rights of women vs the rights of their unborn children and others It is embarrassing if not offensive to see Utah's legal representatives quibbling over the anonymous plaintiffs' pseudonyms and presenting costly briefs about images associated with the word doe- when human lives are at stake While most Utahns favor abortion riistrictions a May 24 Tri bune poll indicates they aren I particularly pleased about financing the legal defense of the state-new abortion ia They probably feel even worse dbout paymE for a defense that so far seems on innocuous rather than sunstantive issues pro-choic- $ LONG ISLAND — Before the United States has done with the Gulf War which we have been celebrating so lavishly it may be well to pause for a moment and ask how the US Constitution fared in the hostilities The Constitution states "The Congress shall have power to declare War- The Congress did not declare war in the gulf Yet America indubitably wen to war For reasons no one ever really bothered to explain the question of whether to declare war scarcely arose The debate in the Congress was limhad to whether to support the president with what some called an "expression" of its approval So absorbing did the Congress find this debate that it never seemed to notice its unspoken decision to abandon its Ridiculous Row About Doe Utah taxpayers are expected to spend as much as $1 million to fight the American Civil Liberties Union challenge of the states new abortion law Given the early direction of the legal debate they might wonder whether they're getting their money's worth The states lawyers have spent untold hours at significant expense considering the cost of legal services these days developing arguments for dismissing the plaintiffs for using neither their aliases own names nor The anonymous names "Jane Liberty" "Jane Freedom" and "Julie Spouse: they say mock the dignity of the court and embarrass the state by implying in a case that might be called Liberty vs Utah that Utah opposes freedom The names are indeed a departure from the usual "Jane Doe" used to protect litigants priN acy in sensitive cases The names are as the state attorneys "concocted stage names" contend to make the plaintiffs' designed They're cause appear more noble than the state's But so what? The ploy may have some effect on public opinion but the case is mit being tried by the public or even a jury How influential can a name be on Judges experienced in and committed to impartial analysis of the law? Minimally at Jonathan Schell NEWSDAY Congress White House Must Find Compromise on Civil Rights Law i A32 SUNDAY June 9 1991 9 L: v ----- - 4 2--f- t t f I '''l City A government official boasted "This proves that no one can get away with pollution" But plenty of other polluters kept contributing to the capital's worst smog season on record when health officials reported a 20 percent increase in respiratory patients admitted to public hospitals Is it in the interest of the US Latino community to shore up the PRI? It is a party that has sustained itself in power for generations through fraud and gross violations of human rights a party that has been condemned by Amnesty International and the Organization of American States human-rights commission I am concerned about Mexican sovereignty Take a confidential memo from U S Ambassador John D Negroponte to Assistant Secretary of State Bernard Aronson complaining that although Mexico did 60 percent to 70 percent of its trade with the United States its vote in international forums is often antagonistic to US interests The memo suggests that the free-trad- e agreement would bring Mexico around Without a doubt free trade will create jobs in Mexico But what kind of jobs? US corporations go to Mexico because it has a large underpaid unprotected labor pool Can Mexican workers wait for the trickle down effect of jobs paying $350 to $70 day to bring about social change7 Can we expect the PRI to represent the interests of workers in the final version of the treaty" As for this side of the border the National Council of La Raza and other Latino organizations also have done little in recent years to defend working-clas- s interests Where were they during a decade of plant shutdowns and a restructuring of the economy that devastated blue-colla- r workers' In endorsing the -- fast track' believing there will be concessions for the Latino business community the National Council of La Laza is not living up to its name Our community performs the manual labor that will be most impacted by frfa trade Free trade will accelerate plant closures increasing an already swollen secondary labor market at a time when spending on education arid social seruces is being drastically cut Undoubtedly given the present trend toard the globalization of the economy a trade treaty with Mexico is Inevitable Shouldn I the role of Latino organizations be to make certain that the interests of workers on both sides of the border are no! sold our Fast track seriously compromises that goal largest in Mexico Rodolfo 11 4rtma is a professor of Chicano studies at California State I nit ersit1 korthridge - WAk |