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Why Lani Guinier
Hit A Nerve

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JAMES D. BESSER WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT

or White House watchers,
President Clinton's with-
drawal of Lani Guinier's
nomination was one more
example of an administration
that can't seem to find its polit-
ical rudder. But for the Jewish
community, the controversy
over Ms. Guinier's interpreta-
tions of the 1965 Voting Rights
Act was just the most visible
skirmish in an ongoing war over
how American democratic in-
stitutions should be modified to
eradicate persistent patterns of
discrimination and exclusion.
The stakes in this battle are
enormous for a Jewish commu-
nity that has done well under
more traditional rules of politi-
cal engagement. And the con-
troversy has the potential to
inflame already-strained rela-
tions between Jews and other
minority groups, especially
African-Americans: If Jews are
seen as protecting their own big
piece of the pie at the expense
of other groups get only a nib-
ble, the results could undercut .
the coalition building that has
been a traditional keystone of
Jews' political strength.
Initially, the voting rights act
was a law the Jewish commu-
nity could embrace without
reservation. Its purpose, said
Jerome Chanes, "was simple:
black enfranchisement in the
South."
Mr. Chanes, co-director for
domestic concerns for the Na-
tional Jewish Community Re-
lations Advisory Council
(NJCRAC), said the act has two
critical provisions:
* Section Two, which says us-
ing any tactic that discriminates
against a group is illegal.
* Section Five, which requires
the Justice Department's ap-
proval for any new procedure
that would affect voting in an
area in which constituents were
a minority.
This straightforward lan-
guage was essentially a jump-
ing-off point in the slow, but de-
termined march towards
political equality for African-
Americans. As states and local-
ities figured out new ways to
exclude blacks from the politi-
cal process, the courts expand-
ed the scope of the Voting Rights
Act.
In 1982, for instance, the act
was amended in response to
continuing patterns of discrim-
ination. Originally, only inten-
tional acts of discrimination
were construed as violations.
The amendments added the no-

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NEW 1993 ELDORADO

Stk. # 615672

*GMAC SMARTLEASE 24 months. First pymt. plus $500 ref. sec. dep., $1500.00 down and plate or transfer due on delivery. 4%
state tax additional. Mile limitation of 30,000. 100 per mile excess charge over limitation. Lessee has option to purchase at lease end.
To get total payments, multiply payment by number of months.

t GMAC SMARTLEASE 36 months. First pymt. plus $500 ref. sec. dep., $1500.00 down and plate or transfer due on delivery. 4% state
tax additional. Mile limitation of 45,000. 100 per mile excess charge over limitation. Lessee has option to purchase at lease end. To get
total payment, multiply payment by number of months. ** Plus tax, title, includes $2,000 customer cash.

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tion that plaintiffs in voting
right cases no longer had to
prove that a voting scheme in-
tentionally discriminates
against them. The effects of that
scheme are sufficient grounds
for action under the law.
The amendments also say
that no group is entitled to "pro-
portional representation" — rep-
resentation in legislative bodies
in a proportion equal to a
group's proportion of the over-
all population. But since then,
courts and civil rights activists
have tried to devise plans to
guarantee the election of repre-
sentatives of specific minorities
in certain districts where bias
has been intractable.
That was one of the issues in
the Guinier controversy. In her
legal writings, Ms. Guinier
seemed to suggest an interpre-
tation of the Voting Rights Act
that would include a kind of

Moral principle and
naked self-interest
made voting rights
ignite strong
passions in Jews.

proportional representation,
along with innovative ideas de-
signed to compensate for black
under-representation in Con-
gress and state legislatures.
Such notions are already in
play in the American political
system. One of the most notori-
ous involves the so-called "1-85"
district in North Carolina, a
bizarre congressional district
snaking along Interstate 85 for
more than 150 miles, the only
way redistricters could guaran-
tee electing an African-Ameri-
can representative.
Racially based redistricting
also affected last year's prima-
ry defeat of Rep. Stephen Solarz,
D-N.Y., a popular Jewish legis-
lator whose district was carved
up to create a majority- His-
panic district.
Why has voting rights ignit-
ed such strong passions in the
Jewish community? The answer
is a complex blend of lofty moral
principle and naked self-inter-
est.
"The argument against such
ideas is two-fold," said Marc
Stern, legal director of the
American Jewish Congress.
"First, is the belief that it is
wrong to organize a society by
ethnic groups. Jews have al-

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