The Issue:
On May 9, 2001, President George W. Bush has nominated Jeffrey S. Sutton, of Ohio, to serve on the Sixth circuit court of Appeals, which hears cases from Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee.

The ISSUE:
Despite the fact that equal opportunity programs, such as affirmative action, have proven to be an effective tool that gives qualified individuals equal access to participate and contribute; access that has been historically denied, they have come under attack again in recent years. Most recently, the US Supreme Court agreed to hear in April a case attacking the equal opportunity admissions program at the University of Michigan law school. Unfortunately, President Bush has announced that he intends to file a brief in support of the plaintiff’s case and against the University’s affirmative action program.

The fact of the matter is that our nation still needs equal opportunity programs in education, employment and contracting. Approximately 18% of all college students are African American, Latino, or American Indian compared with 28% of the college age population. African American men and women comprise less than 2.5% of total employment in the top jobs in the private sector. Based on their number, minority-owned firms received only 57 cents for every federal dollar they would be expected to receive if they were not a minority-owned firm.

James Coleman, Chair of the American Bar Association’s (ABA) Section of Individual Rights and Responsibilities, testified before Congress on June 20 urging reform: “When the criminal justice system wrongfully sends an innocent person to prison or death row, it threatens all of us. The unimaginable horror of the execution of an innocent person should give us all the resolve to do what is necessary to fix what now clearly is a broken system.”

A transgendered female participating in an anti-war protest was singled out, arrested and abused early Friday morning in Portland, Oregon.  Local transgenders are upset, and demanding explanations in response to the treatment by the Portland Police and the Multnomah County Sheriff's Dept.

In addition, the National Transgender Advocacy Coalition (NTAC) has expressed deep concern at the initial reports of this incident.  NTAC's chair, Vanessa Edwards Foster, called the news "especially troubling" and worthy of deeper investigation.

According to eyewitness reports, when police arrived at the Burnside Bridge near downtown Portland on Friday, March 21, they surrounded the crowd in full riot gear.  Once in place, they announced over a loud speaker that everyone could leave, and that anyone who chose to remain would be arrested for disorderly conduct. One male-to-female transgender was singled out by authorities for what was called "unwarranted verbal and physical abuse" on multiple occasions, and in front of several witnesses.

The sky-high electricity and natural gas prices in California between 2000 and 2001 that bankrupted the state’s largest utility and caused several days of rolling blackouts was the result of widespread manipulation by several Texas-based energy companies with close ties to President Bush, federal energy regulators ruled Wednesday.  

The energy companies, Dynegy Inc., Reliant Resources, Enron Corporation, all of which contributed heavily to Bush’s presidential campaign, must now refund California billions of dollars in profits it reaped between January 2000 and June 2001. Other energy companies, including Duke Energy, Mirant and Williams Companies, were also identified for taking of advantage of loopholes in California’s newly deregulated energy market to boost their profits and ordered to pay refunds.  

In addition, FERC harshly criticized Reliant Resources for manipulating natural gas prices at the Southern California trading hub known as Topock. In FERC’s staff report to Congress, Reliant is accused of dominating the Southern California gas market, raising prices there and selling at the top of that market.