A dream dismantled: Self-styled rule changes could blinder U.S. Civil Rights Commission

By Kathryn Casa | Vermont Guardian

posted January 13, 2006

Hurricane Katrina stripped the cheap veneer from the notion that racism is a thing of the past, yet in its wake the venerable U.S. Commission on Civil Rights stands poised to eviscerate the advisory panels that act as its eyes and ears in the states.

The Republican-dominated commission, once described as the “conscience of the nation,” is not threatening to eliminate itself. Instead, rule changes would remove the advisory status of some of the country’s top civil rights activists and could lead to fewer minority members on the 51 state advisory committees (SACs).

“With the proposed SAC membership rule changes, the commission majority is well on its way to dragging ‘the eyes and ears of the commission’ into its hermetically sealed ideological chamber,” wrote New Hampshire SAC Chairman Andrew Stewart in comments on the proposed change. “This will only guarantee that the commission will be increasingly isolated from the populations it was created to protect.”

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