Through the office of the Solicitor General, the Attorney General represents the United States before the U.S. Supreme Court, and often files "friend of the court" briefs even when the United States is not a party to the case. As such, he or she can exercise a great deal of discretion in deciding which cases - and which side - to support. The Attorney General also reviews proposed legislation and advises the President as to whether particular proposals violate the Constitution as interpreted by the Supreme Court.
According to the ACLU report, Ashcroft's public policy positions "indicate that he fundamentally disagrees with the core tenants of the Bill of Rights and the Constitution as they are currently understood and applied." As evidence, the ACLU pointed to Ashcroft's support of 16 amendments to the Constitution during his six years in the Senate, some of which took direct aim at the Bill of Rights, adding that "none of the amendments he supported would have expanded individual rights; many of them instead represented blatant attacks on our most cherished rights.
His record in the civil rights arena shows a marked lack of interest in expanding the "equal protection" guarantees enshrined in the 14th Amendment. As a Senator, he opposed federal hate-crimes legislation and the Employment Nondiscrimination Act. He authored the "Charitable Choice" provision of the welfare reform law that lets religious organizations impose their beliefs on welfare recipients while delivering federally-funded social services. Since then, Ashcroft has aggressively promoted the inclusion of Charitable Choice provisions in additional federally-funded social services - while opposing any effort to require compliance with anti-discrimination laws in the delivery of those services. As Missouri's attorney general, he opposed any and all attempts, even voluntary plans, to desegregate schools in St. Louis.
His private views on race and civil rights appear to be consistent with his public service record. He recently accepted an honorary degree from Bob Jones University, that bastion of racial and religious intolerance. In an interview with the neo-Confederate magazine Southern Partisan, he praised the publication for helping to "set the record straight" about issues related to the Civil War. Some of the magazine's recent "record-straightening" included informing its readers that "Slave owners ... encouraged strong slave families to further the slaves' peace and happiness," and "Negroes, Asians, and Orientals; Hispanics, Latins, and Eastern Europeans; have no temperament for democracy, never had, and probably never will."
In addition to helping to shape future law, the Attorney General recommends, screens and helps select nominees to the federal courts - both for the Supreme Court and for hundreds of positions in lower courts. Since vacancies in the federal judiciary are at an all time high, due to the failure of the Republican Senate to confirm many of President Clinton's appointments, the Attorney General of the next administration is in a position to shape our federal court system far beyond the next President's term of office.
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