PRESIDENT Bush's veto of the Civil Rights Act of 1990 puts him in league with Andrew Johnson and Ronald Reagan, who until now were the only presidents in U.S. history to veto civil-rights legislation.
Bush claims to be a champion of rights, but his actions belie his words. The veto (and the Senate's failure to override the veto) aligns Bush and the Republican Party squarely with business interests against workers' rights.
The veto is disgraceful because the bill was so moderate in scope. It sought to restore anti-discrimination laws that were dismantled by six U.S. Supreme Court rulings last year. Those protections had been in place for nearly 18 years; there's no evidence that employers had trouble abiding by the standards.
Yet Bush insisted the bill would force employers to create racial hiring quotas. He arrogantly dismissed significant compromises made by Democratic and Republican lawmakers to lessen impacts on employers. Lately, even Republicans such as Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania have argued that quotas were not required or encouraged under the bipartisan bill.
It's now clear that the administration means to turn the clock back on civil rights. Bush's alternative proposal, submitted to Congress along with the veto, is a sham.
The White House bill would codify and endorse the very Supreme Court rulings that the Civil Rights Act was meant to reverse. The administration would actually allow businesses to justify blatant discrimination on the grounds of ``customer relations.''
In other words, a worker's ability to perform a job would be irrelevant if an employer decided that a business objective dictated discriminatory practices. The practical effect is to allow law firms to reject minority lawyers because some clients prefer to deal with white attorneys; permit airlines to hire only attractive young women, and allow prison wardens to use only male guards. It is alarming that the administration could even contemplate letting workplaces revert to those conditions.
American businesses and labor have lived for two decades under civil-rights law protecting workers from discrimination. The supporters of the Civil Rights Act asked that workers be allowed to retain those rights. Bush says no.