WASHINGTON — WASHINGTON -In the annals of the capital's acid partisanship, their names are boldfaced: candidates for America's highest civil rights post who never got confirmed.
During the last Democratic administration, conservatives succeeded in blocking Senate approval of Lani Guinier and Bill Lann Lee to head the civil rights division at the Justice Department.
Now, they're gearing up to put Thomas E. Perez, a Maryland lawyer selected for the job by President Barack Obama, through the grinder. Senate sources predict that the state's labor secretary will be confirmed for the federal post, but history suggests that it won't be without a fight.
"This is arguably the most difficult position to fill in the federal government when it comes to Senate confirmation," said Roger Clegg, a former official in the civil rights division.
"Both sides feel so strongly about the issues that the division handles, and in particular, the party bases on each side feel so strongly about the issues," said Clegg, a conservative veteran of Clinton-era confirmation fights.
The division's more than 300 lawyers enforce civil rights laws prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race, sex, disability, religion and national origin across a range of areas. Lawyers also oversee voting-rights cases, which are likely to increase after next year's census and the resulting redistricting.
The choice of Perez to be the nation's leading civil rights enforcer came as a surprise. The White House made the announcement late on a Friday afternoon, timing that is often used to limit political fallout.
Some Latino civil rights advocates reacted angrily, viewing Perez as a replacement for a highly regarded Mexican-American civil rights lawyer in Los Angeles who had been expected to get the nomination. Cruz Reynoso, a retired California jurist who helped lead a review of key federal agencies for Obama's transition team, expressed concern that the president had withdrawn the expected appointment of Thomas Saenz to avoid a confirmation fight over immigration issues.
Immigration is a minor responsibility for the division's lawyers, but the topic is likely to be a focus in the confirmation of Perez, a Dominican-American who would be the second Hispanic to lead the office. For seven years, he was a director of CASA of Maryland, an immigrant rights group, and served as its president in 2002. That year, CASA lobbied the General Assembly against a proposal by Gov. Parris N. Glendening to make it tougher for immigrants to get a Maryland driver's license.
