The Boston Globe: on Civil Rights
Angus King:
Supports gay marriage
King would pass a general Democratic litmus test: He is prochoice on abortion, supports gay marriage, backs President Obama's health care law, and opposes GOP efforts to transform Medicare into a voucher program.
Indeed, he has endorsed Obama for reelection.But he insists that he has conservative values when it comes to fiscal responsibility. "I think you should have a 'pay-as-you-go' system,'' he said.
Source: Boston Globe, "Independent", on 2012 Maine Senate Debates
Apr 19, 2012
George W. Bush:
Withholding info from Congress OK on national security issue
Pres. Bush issued these signing statement instructing federal agencies on his interpretation of Congressional laws:March 9, 2006:Justice Department officials must give reports to Congress by certain dates on how the FBI is using the USA Patriot
Act to search homes and secretly seize papers.
Bush’s signing statement: The president can order Justice Dept. officials to withhold any information from Congress if he decides it could impair national security or executive branch operations.
Law passed by Congress on Dec. 30, 2005: When requested, scientific information ‘’prepared by government researchers shall be transmitted [to Congress] uncensored and without delay.“
Bush’s signing statement:
The president can tell researchers to withhold any information from Congress if he decides its disclosure could impair foreign relations, national security, or the workings of the executive branch.
Source: Boston Globe, analysis of presidential signing statements
Apr 30, 2006
George W. Bush:
Equal protection supercedes recruiting women & minorities
Since taking office in 2001, President Bush has issued signing statements on more than 750 new laws, declaring that he has the power to set aside the laws when they conflict with his legal interpretation of the Constitution.
The federal government is instructed to follow the statements when it enforces the laws. Here is an example:Law passed by Congress on Dec. 17, 2004:
The new national intelligence director shall recruit and train women and minorities to be spies, analysts, and translators in order to ensure diversity in the intelligence community.
Bush’s signing statement: The executive branch shall construe
the law in a manner consistent with a constitutional clause guaranteeing ‘’equal protection“ for all. (In 2003, the Bush administration argued against race conscious affirmative action programs in a Supreme Court case. The court rejected Bush’s view.)
Source: Boston Globe, analysis of presidential signing statements
Apr 30, 2006
John Kerry:
Questions the ultimate practicality of affirmative action
‘The truth is that affirmative action has kept America thinking in racial terms,’ Kerry said. Insisting that he still supported affirmative action, Kerry outlined its costs, particularly the white resentment that racial preferences had fostered.
Kerry went on to state, ‘We cannot lecture our citizens about fairness and then disregard legitimate questions about the actual fairness of federal regulation and law.’
Source: Complete Biography By The Boston Globe, p.279-280
Apr 27, 2004
John Kerry:
Defense of Marriage Act is fundamentally ugly
In 1996, John Kerry again parted with the church when he voted against the Defense of Marriage Act, which created a federal defintion of marriage as the union between a man and a woman and prohibited the extending of federal marital benefits,
such as Social Security, for same-sex partners. Kerry called the Defense of Marriage Act “fundamentally ugly, fundamentally political, and fundamentally flawed.”
Source: Complete Biography By The Boston Globe, p.294
Apr 27, 2004
Rev. Jesse Jackson:
Blacks were disproportionately disenfranchised in Florida
The Rev. Jesse Jackson, claiming “a clear pattern of voter suppression of African-American votes,” wants the Justice Department to begin a formal investigation in Florida. “African-Americans were targeted to be disenfranchised,” he said yesterday at a
news conference. The Washington Post reported yesterday that its computer analysis found the more black and Democratic a precinct, the more likely a high number of presidential votes were not counted. About 2.9 percent of Florida’s presidential
ballots, roughly 180,000, were not counted because no candidate was chosen, two candidates were picked, or a ballot was not clearly marked. Traditionally, 2 percent of ballots cast nationwide do not record a presidential vote. In Miami-Dade,
the state’s most populous county, roughly 3 percent of ballots were excluded from the presidential tally. But in precincts with a black population of 70 percent or more, about 10 percent were not counted.
Source: Michael J. Sniffen, AP, in Boston Globe, pg. A10
Dec 4, 2000
Anthony Kennedy:
Can’t outlaw flag burning
Usually conservative, and part of the majority bloc that favors states’ rights, but voted against states that wanted to outlaw flag burning.
Source: (X-ref government) Reuters article in Boston Globe, p. A45
Dec 1, 2000
John Paul Stevens:
Favors affirmative action
Stevens favors abortion rights, affirmative action, and defendants’ rights. His 1995 opinion struck down state term limits on candidates for congress.
Source: (X-ref government) Reuters article in Boston Globe, p. A45
Dec 1, 2000
Stephen Breyer:
Disabled people can sue states under federal ADA law
Breyer is a consistently liberal voice on the court. He recently affirmed the right of disabled people to sue states under federal civil rights law.
Source: (X-ref government) Reuters article in Boston Globe, p. A45
Dec 1, 2000
Joseph Lieberman:
For gay equal employment; against gay marriage
Lieberman has had a mixed record on gay rights. He has opposed gay marriages and was a backer of the 1996 Defense
of Marriage Act, which allows states to disregard gay marriages recognized by other states. Still, Lieberman did support the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which prohibits job discrimination against gays.
Source: Susan Milligan, Boston Globe, p. A1
Aug 10, 2000
Gary Bauer:
If not prayer, recite Declaration
Bauer says if schoolchildren can’t begin their day with a prayer, then they should recite their Declaration of Independence. “It would accomplish the same thing,” said Bauer. He would select the passage that begins, “We hold these truths to be
self-evident..” Bauer added, “It would remind all of our students that God is the author of our liberties and that nobody can take that liberty away. And since it is in the founding documents, I don’t see how the ACLU could object.”
Source: (x-ref Education) Boston Globe, p. A20, “Political Briefs”
Nov 25, 1999
Pat Buchanan:
AIDS is retribution; women can’t compete
Buchanan has said that AIDS is nature’s “retribution against homosexuals.” He has opposed virtually every modern civil rights law. He has praised the “winning issues” of ex-Ku Klux Klansman and politican David Duke. He has said that Hitler was a man
of “great courage.” He has said that women are not endowed with the “single-minded ambition and the will to succeed in the fiercely competitive world of Western capitalism.”
Source: Boston Globe, editorial, Derrick Z. Jackson, p. A23
Oct 1, 1999
Bill Bradley:
Supports affirmative action
Bradley positions [include] support for affirmative action.
Source: Boston Globe, Sunday April 25, 1999, p. C4, by David Nyhan
Apr 25, 1999
Bill Bradley:
Racial unity is a defining moral issue.
“If I’m president... one of the things you’d better show is how your department or agency has furthered tolerance and racial understanding... For me the quest for racial unity remains the defining moral issue of our time.” Race relations have been a life-
long interest for Bradley, whose basketball career led him to the intersection of black and white America. He refused to do commercial endorsements as a New York Knick, inpart because of discomfort about being hailed as basketball’s “great white hope.”
Source: Boston Globe, 4/21/99, p. A12, col. 4-6
Apr 21, 1999
Bill Bradley:
NY shooting as error; 1992 King verdict denounced.
Bradley did not join the criticism of [the 4 white NYC officers accused of fatally shooting an unarmed African immigrant]. He called the shooting “a grevious error by those charged with protecting the very person they shot.” But he added that the case
shed light on “white indifference and black suspicion.” In 1992, when white LA officers were acquitted of beating Rodney King, Bradley denounced the verdict, and rapped a pencil on the Senate podium 56 times to dramatize how many times King had been hit.
Source: Boston Globe, 4/21/99, p. A12, col. 5-6
Apr 21, 1999
Page last updated: Oct 11, 2020