Portland observer., May 26, 1977, Page 3, Image 3

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Portland Observer Thursday, May 26, 1977 Page 8
Black Caucus demands investigation of racist remarks
1 ,
W A SH IN G TO N . D.C. - The Cengren
sional Black Caucus demands a full
investigation of the “racist remarks"
which a Republican Congressman la
alleged to have made while discussing the
investigation into the assassination of
civil rights leader D r. Martin Luther
King, Jr. Congressman Parren J. Mitch­
ell, Chairman of the Caucus, asked for the
Investigation in a letter to John J.
Rhodes, “Minority Leader’ in the United
States House of Representatives.
Syndicated columnist Jack Anderson
recently reported that John Ashbrook, a
Republican Congressman from Johnston,
Ohio, objected to the Capitol Hill probe
into the assassination ot the slain Nobel
Peace Prize Winner, and reportedly said
that he believed that time and money
should not be wasted “investigating the
murder of some nigger.” The Caucus
letter indicated that this alleged racial
slur by a public official must be investi­
gated to determine the true facts.
The Congressional Black Caucus,
whose membership includes Cleveland
Democrat Louis Stokes. House Assassin­
ations Committee Chairman and District
of Columbia Delegate Walter Fauntroy,
Chairman of the Assassinations subcom­
mittee investigating Dr. King's death.
W
strongly urged the House Republicsn
party leadership to release the results of
its investigation. When the report is
released, the Caucus further stated,
“Representative Ashbrook (should) take
the first opportunity possible to publicly
set forth his personal and political atti­
tudes and practices toward Black Ameri­
cans, should the investigation be incon
elusive.”
“The implications of such a statement,
for the King Family, for the Black people
in Representative Ashbrook's Congres­
sional district and political party, and
generally for all decent-thinking people,
are so serious that if it is shown the racist
statement was made, then nothing less
than a public apology made in the U.8.
House of Representatives is acceptable."
stated Congressman Mitchell.
The House Select Committee on Assas­
sinations was established on September
17, 1976, primarily through the efforts of
the Congressional Black Caucus, and
Caucus members Congresswoman
Yvonne B. Burke (D Calif.) and Congress
man Harold Ford (D-Tenr.., also are
Committee members. The Committee is
supported by the members of the House
of Representatives, having been funded
through the ninety fifth Congress with a
budget of two and one-half million dollars.
proposal, while still a U.S. Circuit Court
Judge.
“We are living in a time when our
public institutions are under examination
and the courts are not exempt. A citizen
should be afforded a clear method for
complaining against the courts,” Bell
said.
Bell was not referring to the com
plaints of disappointed litigants who have
recourse to appeals courts for controver­
sial rulings, but to protests over element­
ary lapses of conduct-prolonged absence,
intemperate speech from the bench, or,
as in the McComb case, inability to
comrehend legal arguements becausAof
senility.
Harvard professor Raoul Berger, the
noted expert on the impeachment process
emphasizes that judges hold office
“during good behavior.” Some apparatus
for dealing with judges who fall short of
this standard is essential, he says.
“It is costly in terms of Congress’ time
and energy to take weeks and weeks off
to get rid of a dirty lit'le crook in the
judiciary.... I t is advantageous to rid
yourself of this housecleaning chore (by
establishing a judicial commission) and
use impeachment as a sword when
needed,” Berger said when he testified
for the Nunn plan last year.
Two years ago the Judicial Conference
of the United States, representing all
federal judges, studies the Nunn proposal
and announed support “in principle." But
the Conference contended that U.S.
Supreme Court members should be sub­
ject to remvoal from office only by the
impeachment process.
Other impressive support from the
Nunn plan comes from the American Bar
Association, the American Association of
Attorneys General and the American
Judicature Society.
But among all the support mounting for
a policing system over the federal judic­
iary, the most powerful argument is
probably California's successful system.
Put to California voters in 1960, the
Commission on Judicial Peformance was
approved three to one. By a curious
coincidence the judge currently presiding
over the commission -Bertram D. Janes,
associate justice of the Third Appellate
District-was rushed to a remote mount­
ain town 20 years ago to replace a judge
whose drinking held up a murder case for
four days.
Since it set to work in 1961, the
California commission has brought abut
enforced resignation or retirement of 67
judges after investigations substantiated
charges against them.
California has
1,000 judges.
Complaints have been increasing in
number, some of them the result of
citizen surveillance bodies that have sat
through court sessions and written
reports about questionnable judicial
conduct.
In the first year, 1961, 68 complaints
were lodged and 23 inquiries followed
through. Last year, 251 complaints were
lodged, 63 of them judged serious enough
for an inquiry and 46 of those leading to
direct discussion with the judge involved.
Three re tire m en ts or resignations
occurred thereafter.
Cases that became public through final
censure or dismissal often involved
intemperate tantrums by a judge, use of
foul language or accusatory statements.
One such was directed to a girl victim in a
rape case. Another involved a judge who
made derogatory comments on the race
of a Mexican-American juvenile.
This latter so outraged the Mexican-
American community that a group staged
an all-night vigil at the state building in
San Francisco when the commission
considered the censure move.
Policing the federal bench
by Mary EUen Leary*
Sacramento, CA. (PNS) - America's
federal judges, whose lifelong appoint­
ments have made them virtually immune
to public censure, may soon come under
the same disciplinary review mechanisms
faced by their colleagues on most state
benches.
On April 80, the California Commission
on Judicial Performance provided one of
the most striking examples of disciplin­
ary review, forcing immediate retirement
of 82-year old State Supreme Court
Justice Marshall F. McComb for senility.
Chandler joins corps staff
Lieutenant Colonel Richard Chzndlen,
Jr., 41, has been aaaigned to the Portland
District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers,
to serve as deputy district engineer. He
replaces Lieutenant Colonel Melvyn R.
Brown, who retired from military service
in April.
Lt. Col. Chandler's position with the
Portland Diatrict marks his first assign­
ment in the civil works activity of the
Corps. He was formerly engineer con­
struction adivsor to the U.S. Army
Logistics Center at Ft. Lee, Virginia.
As deputy district engineer, Lt. Col.
Chandler will assist District Engineer
Colonel Lou Arnold in supervising a $120
million annual program of water re­
sources development and protection in
Oregon and southwestern Washington.
This includes the operation of Bonneville,
The Dalles and John Day dams on the
Columbia River and 18 flood control dams
and lakes in the Willamette Valley.
Major construction activities in the
Portland District at present include a
$528 million second powerhouse at
Bonneville Dam, dredging for the $19
million Coos Bay channel deepening pro­
ject and completion of Lost Creek Lake
near Medford.
LX. Col. Chandler is a graduate of South
Carolina State College with a bachelor's
degree in mathematics. He received a
master's degree in public administration
from the University of Oklahoma in 1973.
He is a graduate of the advance course,
U.S. Army Engineer School, and the
Command General Staff College.
From 1971 through 1973, L t. Col.
Chandler was director. Facilities Engin­
eer, with the U.S. Army at Kagnew
Station in Asmara, Ethiopia. He served
two tours of duty in Vietnam, where he
was awarded two Bronze Star medals.
His other military decorations include
two Meritorious Service and two Army
Commendation medals.
L t. Col. Chandler and his wife have two
children. Both he and his predecessor,
Lt. Col. Brown, are originally from
Columbia, South Carolina.
That same day Senator Sam Nunn
(Dem. Ga.) introduced legislation in
Washington, D.C. to create a similar
commission at the federal level.
California pioneered the concept that a
spcial commission could effectively police
the occasionally errant judge whose ill
health or ill will might render him unfit
for the bench. Since 1960, when California
passed the law, more than 30 states have
followed suit.
But federal judges - who never face
elections and are thus less answerable to
the public than their state counterparts-
are subject to no disciplinary procedure
but impeachment by Congress.
In the 200-year history of the nation,
only four of the more than 50 judges
whose official conduct has been the
subject of congressional inquiry have
been impeached, the most recent case
occuring 40 years ago.
Judge Warren E . Burger, before he
became Chief Justice of the Supreme
Court, told an attorney generals' confer­
ence, “I would not presume to say how
many judges now in active service are not
able to perform their work adequately,
but every observer knows there are more
than a few.”
Of the 500 federal judges now serving,
Burger’s “more than a few” probably
referred to those who judgment is impair­
ed by ill health, alcoholism, or senility.
But there also have been cases where
justice has been trampled by judges’
arbitrary courtroom practices-or even
criminal conduct.
One of the most notorious cases docu­
mented in Joseph Borkin’s book, The
Corrupt Judge, involved Senior Judge
Martin T. Manton of the U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeals. Judge Manton re­
signed voluntarily after being charged
before Congress with “employing fixers,
engaging in corrupt practices and per­
forming a host of improper activities
tantamount to the sale of his judicial
office."
Manton was subsequently sentenced
to two years in prison by a federal court.
Senator Nunn claims the impeachment
process for errant judges is “too cumber­
some and impractical.” Nunn favors a
supervisory agency patterned after Cali­
fornia's, which is composed of five judges,
two attorneys and two members from
non-legal professions.
The Georgia Senator has powerful,
high-level support for his proposal. Presi­
dent Carter, also from Georgia, has
pubically expressed his concern for
higher ethical standards in government.
And U.S. Attorney General Griffin B.
Bell, another Georgian, last year testified
in support of an earlier version of Nunn’s
Public hearing explores
gas price hike-request
ta w students
(Continued from p .l col.2)
encourage Black enrollment in law
schools. Ms. Harris will represent the
West Coast and bordering states in­
cluding Idaho, Arizona and Montana.
"Hopefully I will be receiving support
from participating schools in the Far
West region. I am in the process of
working on a financial grant proposal
which would include finances for all
operating expenses.
Ma. Harris is a graduate of Franklin
High School. From there her ambition
took her to Linfield College and to San
Jose State, where ahe completed her B.S.
in Administrative Criminal Justice in
1978. She received a Pre Legal Studies
Law Certificate from the University of
Washington, along with a certificate in
Jail Remodeling and Architectural
Design. A t Lewis & Clark School of Law
she served on the Curriculum Committee,
as Affirmative Action Committee Secre­
tary for the Minority Law Students
Association, and was the Director of the
first annual Minority Law Students Ban­
quet. A t present she is a 3 year night
student at Southwestern School of Law in
Los Angeles.
The determination and preservation of
this young Black woman goes further
than her scholarly achievements. During
her second year of law school she
underwent minor surgeries which she
accepted as “minor” setbacks. Personal
inspirations include her father and
mother, M r. & Mrs. Ulicious Harris, D r.
Lee Brown, and Judge Mercedes Diez, all
of Portland.
Dean Paul Wildman of
Southwestern has given his support for
her successful election. Her immediate
ambition is “To finish law school of
course!”.
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N.E. UNION AT AINSWORTH
A public hearing will be held Tuesday.
June 14, to consider Northwest Natural
Gas Co.'s request that nearly half the
10.85 percent rate increase it is seeking
be made effective July 1 on an emergency
basis.
Oregon Public U tility Commissioner
Charles Davis said that after the hearing
to receive evidence he will decide
whether the company should receive any
or all of the 5.4 percent emergency
increase, which it requested May 16.
The 1.18 cents-per-therm increase
would raise the bill of a customer using a
median 49 therms by 58 cents per month.
The full increase would generate an
additional 18.2 million annually in Oregon
revenues.
Northwest President Ron Miller said
the company is requesting the emergency
increase since a decision on the full
request may not be made until late 1977.
He said the company needs the increase
to maintain earnings so it can issue new
securities next fall.
The commissioner has 10 months from
the Feb. 28 filing date to decide whether
any of the full rate increase is justified.
The emergency request hearing will be
at 10 a.m. in Room D , Labor & Industries
Building, Salem, before a PUC adminis­
trative law judge.
«Mary Ellen Leary, former Scripps-
Howard reporter, covers politics for THE
ECONOMIST, published in london.
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