U.S. Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) today sent the following letter to Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee Chairman Edward Kennedy (D-MA) and Ranking Member Michael Enzi (R-WY), raising concerns about the nomination of David Palmer to Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
In the letter, Obama says that nominees to the Commission should have a history of achievement and commitment to the enforcement of anti-discrimination laws. However, Palmer’s tenure as head of the Employment Litigation Section at the Department of Justice does not reflect the independence, fairness, and judgment necessary to enforce employment laws.
The text of the letter is below:
Dear Chairman Kennedy and Ranking Member Enzi:
I am writing to express my serious concerns about the nomination of David Palmer to become a Commissioner of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). Mr. Palmer’s record as Chief of the Employment Litigation Section of the Department of Justice raises serious questions about his competence and his commitment to civil rights.
The EEOC is the nation’s preeminent agency for enforcing Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Every EEOC Commissioner must be above reproach and have a history of achievement and commitment to the enforcement of anti-discrimination in employment.
On July 13, 2007, Mr. Palmer met with HELP Committee staff, including two representatives from my office. He articulated a commitment to civil rights and the enforcement of discrimination law. When pressed about his actual record, however, he was unable to reconcile his professed views with the disappointing record of his leadership at the Justice Department.
For example, Latinos filed over half of the nearly 300 charges of national origin discrimination that the EEOC referred to the Employment Litigation Section while Mr. Palmer led that section. Yet, during his tenure, he brought only one case on behalf of a Latino complainant. And while Mr. Palmer told HELP staff that he recognized that African Americans and Latinos suffer disproportionately from employment discrimination, he could not explain why the section filed almost as many cases alleging national origin or race discrimination against whites as against African Americans and Latinos combined.
Moreover, according to a July 23, 2007 letter from a group of former career managers, attorneys, and career professionals from the Department of Justice, Mr. Palmer treated colleagues with “disdain and contempt,” and there was “at least one complaint of discrimination or other improper activity . . . filed against Mr. Palmer during his tenure as Section Chief.”
Although I do not question the sincerity of Mr. Palmer’s statements to the HELP Committee staff, the facts about his section’s work are too serious to be ignored.
Given Mr. Palmer’s poor record and the declared concerns of his former colleagues regarding his fitness for this position, I hope you both will work to address these issues before Mr. Palmer is given a confirmation vote in Committee. I look forward to working with you to ensure that any nominee to the EEOC is dedicated to the mission of the Commission and has a track record that demonstrates his or her capacity for the job. Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Barack Obama
United States Senator
August 6, 2007 at 10:24 pm
[...] Read Obama’s previous letter about Palmer’s nomination here. [...]
August 23, 2007 at 4:24 pm
Thank you for writing this letter. For too many years now we have seen our civil rights eroded time after time with no one in Congress standing up to be counted in stopping this odious trend. I hope if you are elected, you will do everything you can to neutralize the fundamentalistic view of our U.S. Supreme Court on these kinds of issues.
August 23, 2007 at 4:51 pm
It looks like his letter was effective. I see that the nominee withdrew from the process earlier this week. Well done!
peace, Villager
August 23, 2007 at 5:57 pm
Hurray for Barack:
It’s time to let the Ward Connerly’s of the world know that there are still among us those who understand the cost of civil rights. It was not gingerly handed down on a silver platter. A number of those such as Ward Connerly, are tracking their steps with the bloody foot prints of courageous civil rights soldiers whose bloody backs from lashings and beatings from slavery to now are the highways upon which they are privileged to travel as a result. Take not those who are shallow in their grasp of civil rights history. It is something that requires utmost integrity and an acumen for social justice! We have to fight those who have and continue to assualt equality with no substantively measurable substance to support pollyanna, everything is okay and appreciative inquiry beliefs, values and attitudes.