Post Opinion - Editorial

MARY BERRY'S FAILED COUP

November 19, 2002 --

The U.S. Supreme Court has finally put an end to the year-long misuse of public funds by the notorious Mary Frances Berry, head of the U.S. Commission of Civil Rights.

Without comment, the court yesterday declined to review a unanimous ruling of the U.S. Court of Appeals that forbade Berry from blocking President Bush's appointment of Peter Kirsanow to sit on the commission.

Bush named Kirsanow last Nov. 29 to replace Victoria Wilson; she'd been appointed to fill out the term of Leon Higgenbotham following his death.

Then-President Clinton explicitly stated that Wilson's term was temporary, but Commission Chairman Berry and her left-wing allies later insisted that she'd been given a new six-year term. They even refused to allow Kirsanow to sit in on meetings, pending the legal outcome.

Now the Supreme Court has put an end to that nonsense.

Berry's sole agenda has been to use her office to harass Republicans and conservatives - at the expense of probing genuine civil-rights issues.

And she brooks no dissent from the party line she's established - not even from members of her own commission.

When Berry had the commission declare that Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and then-Secretary of State Katherine Harris conspired to hamper African-Americans from voting, Republicans Abigail Thernstrom and Russell Redenough tried to file an opposing brief - but Berry refused to publish the opposing side.

That left the commission - formed to ensure that minorities receive equal representation - in the ironic position of censoring its own minority.

Thanks to Bill Clinton, Berry's term runs until 2005. But that doesn't mean President Bush can't move to fire her.

Then-President Reagan tried to do just that in 1983; the Democratic-controlled Congress then rewrote the rules so that commissioners no longer serve "at the pleasure of the president."

But there are serious doubts about the legality of that law, given that it violates Article II of the Constitution, which gives presidents the right to name and remove members of executive branch agencies. No court has yet ruled on it.

The White House should seize the initiative and send Berry packing.

Even if it loses, the nation will be none the worse for the effort.

-- Anonymous, November 19, 2002