Legal News

Report: Thomas Saenz to Head DOJ Civil Rights Division

By Ashby Jones

This just in: The Los Angeles Daily Journal is reporting that President Obama has tapped Thomas Saenz to head the civil rights division at the Department of Justice.

Saenz, 42, the former vice president of litigation for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund in Los Angeles, is currently serving as counsel to Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

Neither Saenz nor representatives from the DOJ provided comment to the LADJ, which cited unnamed sources.

Civil rights attorneys and academics in southern California praised the choice. “I don’t think the president or attorney general could make a better selection,” said Mark Rosenbaum, legal director of the ACLU of Southern California. “He’s a throwback to the great civil rights attorney pioneers, like Thurgood Marshall.”

Rosenbaum praised Saenz’s work challenging the legality of voter measures, ranging from Proposition 187, the ballot initiative that sought to cut off social and education services to undocumented immigrants, to his work on the University of Michigan case challenging the legality of affirmative action in admissions.

Saenz, a native Los Angeleno, earned his law degree from Yale School of Law in 1991. He clerked for Judge Stephen Reinhardt on the Ninth Circuit. From there, he joined MALDEF. During his 12-year tenure at the organization, he oversaw key litigation on issues ranging from day-laborer rights to educational equity to employment rights.

While serving as Villaraigosa’s legal adviser, Saenz was considered the architect behind the mayor’s controversial push to play a greater role in the Los Angeles Unified School District.

LB has put in a call to the DOJ, looking for confirmation or comment.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on February 24, 2009 (boomark / email).