Attorney Decries Court's Decisions on Civil Rights

The United States is unwilling to remedy its racial and ethnic problems and actively embrace civil rights said a Boston Civil Rights expert yesterday at a lunch-time discussion sponsored by the Kennedy School of Government's Institute of Politics (IOP).

Focusing on recent Supreme Court decisions on civil rights, Director of Boston Lawyers for Civil Rights Alan J. Rom, told the audience of 35 people that the United States could only effectively address civil rights issues if it had the will, which, he said, it currently does not.

Likening the eradication of discrimination and racial tension to the nation's quest to place an American on the moon 20 years ago, Rom said that "if we have the will to do it, we can do it--if we can put a man on the moon, why can't we remedy [our current racial and ethnic situation]?"

Acknowledging the Court's--and the nation's--professed desire to do something about civil rights, Rom noted the lack of action. "We've had the will to say it, but not really to do it," he said.

Specifically criticizing Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and Associate Justice Antonin Scalia, Rom credited former President Ronald W. Reagan with thoroughly investigating his Supreme Court nominiations, making sure that they would vote the way he wished them to.

Rom discussed the Court's recent rulings on civil rights issues, saying that particularly after the Court's ruling in Martin v. Wilks, advances that had been made years ago could be contested by "strangers to the [original] proceedings."

`Anything is fair game'

Describing how white firefighters in Birmingham, Alabama had challenged an old consent decree of which they had not been a part, Rom concluded that the Court's ruling meant that now "anything is fair game."

Acknowledging his harsh criticism of the Reagan appointees and the Court's conservative majority, Rom said, "I didn't come here to editorialize, but I can't help it."

Rom emphasized everyone's societal obligation to correct the nation's past wrongs. "None of us is islands unto ourselves. We are part of a society," he said. "We cannot pretend that history never happened."