Shattuck Testifies at Meese Hearings

Harvard's designed vice-president of government and community affairs. John H.F. Shattuck, sharply criticized the Reagan Administration's record on civil rights before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday.

Testifying for over an hour as part of confirmation hearings on President Reagan's appointment of Edwin R. Meese III as Attorney General, Shattuck charged the Administration with a "wide variety of actions that can only be seen as contemptuous of civil rights laws."

Shattuck, legislative director of the American can Civil Liberties Union, (ACLU), testified that "the available evidence is that Mr. Meese has been centrally involved in directing or approving many of the civil rights action taken by the Justice Department" that have led to a breakdown in the enforcement of laws preventing school, employment and housing discrimination.

Misunderstanding

Shattuck yesterday denied that he or the ACLU were taking a stance on the Meese nomination but said he only wanted to "tell of the failure of the Justice Department to enforce civil rights legislation," adding that "we would have done the same with any nominee."

The ACLU asked to testify at the hearings in order to "urge the committee to closely question Mr. Meese on his views on civil rights and to call for a change in the direction of civil rights enforcement."

The testimony comes 10 days after Shattuck issued an ACLU report detailing the Administration's disregard for civil rights issues. The report lists numerous cases where the Administration has undermined previous Justice Department efforts and Congressional rulings on civil rights, Shattuck said.

The report stated: "The Administration actively and repeatedly opposed voluntary efforts on local levels to end segregation against Justice Department rulings. The Federal structure for enforcing civil rights is severely impaired by budgetary cuts."

At the hearings, when pressed by Sen. Joseph R. Biden (D-Del.) as to whether the Administration's policies were illegal or merely "contemptuous," Shattuck said the policies were in fact a violation of the law and congressional intent.

The hearings involved a lengthy debate between Biden and Shattuck as to whether incoming administrations should reverse the government's stance on civil rights cases from previous administrations' positions, observers said. Shattuck had charged the Reagan Administration of doing this in a number of instances. Biden said that future Democratic administrations would reverse the Reagan Administration's positions.

"Sen. Biden wanted a clear-cut answer on whether the Justice Department can switch sides from positions held by previous administrations," Steven Metalitz, aide to Sen. Charles McC. Mathias (R-Md.), a member of the Judiciary Committee, said yesterday.

"It was basically an intellectual discussion on a hypothetical level," one senate aide who asked not to be identified said, adding. "Bidden was just playing the devil's advocate."