Constitutional Law

Time For Renewed Work On Equal Rights

Mary Frances Berry, the former chairwoman of the Commission on Civil Rights, maintains in a column for The New York Times that it’s time for the Commission to be replaced by a new one dedicated to addressing “the rights of many groups, including gays.” Berry, who moderated an event co-hosted by ACS earlier this week on the Constitution’s Reconstruction or Civil War amendments, writes that the “Commission on Civil Rights has been crippled since the Reagan years by the appointments of commissioners who see themselves as agents of the presidential administration rather than as independent watchdogs. The creation of a new, independent human and civil rights commission could help us determine our next steps in the pursuit of freedom and justice in our society.” In her column, Berry notes that lesbians and gay men continue to be denied marriage equality and subjected to employment discrimination with no federal law they can turn to for protection or redress.

Full post as published by ACS Blog on January 16, 2009 (boomark / email).