Judge says lawyers should work with social scientists
By Brandon Loomis
Senior Reporter
Lawyers and social scientists
should cooperate to eliminate racial
c1’scrimination, a federal judge
speaking at the University of Ne
braska-Lincoln College of Law said
Monday.
Nathaniel Jones of the 6th U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals in Ohio said
lawyers must be socially conscious.
He quoted a law professor who said,
‘ ‘A lawyer is either a social engineer,
or he’s a parasite.”
Jones said lawyers should draw on
the research of social scientists to
Erove cause in discrimination cases.
Inless courts understand why dis
crimination exists, he said, they will
never find real remedies.
“If you don’t get past causation,
you don’t get to that point,” Jones
said.
Jones, former general counsel for
the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People,
said that as a lawyer, he relied on
graphs and facts from objective so
cial scientists to prove that problems
still exist.
“Where you’re flying in the face
of public sentiment, it’s pretty lough
to prevail,” he said.
As an example of how social sci
entific data and statistics are vital,
Jones cited the recent case in which
the Supreme Court struck down a
program in Richmond, Va., which set
aside 30 percent of city jobs for
blacks.
In the majority opinion, Jones
said, justices said lawyers had not
presented significant evidence of
past discrimination to justify such a
program.
The case involved a city plumbing
contract.
Although the court probably jus.
didn’t like the idea of a city setting
aside 30 percent of its jobs for blacks,
Jones said he agreed that claims of
past discrimination were not substan
tially supported.
“The record didn’t even show
how many minority contractors were
available to compete for the plumb
ing contract,’’ he said.
Jones said federal courts have
become increasingly white after
eight years of appointments by for
mer President Ronald Reagan.
Therefore, he said, lawyers need
more evidence to convince judges of
the hardships minorities suffer.
“If your bench is made up of a
homogeneous group . . . they (the
lawyers) are going to have a difficult
time,” he said.
Reagan appointed 376 judges,
Jones said, winch accounts for more
than half of federal judges. Only six
Reagan appointees are black, he said,
compared to 37 former President
Jimmy Carter appointees.
Jones said many new white judges
believe racial discrimination to be a
thing of the past, and arc uneducated
about “the subtlety of discrimina
tion.”
Whereas public scnliment was
with blacks in the 1960s because of
brutal discrimination in the South,
Jones said, the subtle housing and
schooling discrimination in northern
inner-cities goes undetected. As a
result, judges arc less sympathetic, he
said.
Jones quoted a study published in
January by the Citizen’s commission
saying civil rights lost ground during
the Reagan administration and that
there are 85 racially motivated acts of
vandalism in the United States per
day.
“That calls to the task the social
scientists and lawyers,” Jones said.
“They must again come together and
help this country . . . save its own
soul.”
Chambers: Bill is ‘a farce and a sham’ ;
ukusjs trom rage ^
Sen. Dave Landis of Lincoln said a
longer prison sentence is no deterrent
to people who think they have no
future. Longer prison terms cannot be
the “first line of defense” against the
drug problem, he said.
Moore said Chambers’ remarks
contained “a certain grain of truth,”
but that senators should do something
to attack the problem.
“This bill doesn’t hurt the cause at
all,” Moore said.
Chambers attempted to kill the bill
and later attempted to postpone ac
tion on the bill until April 25. Both
measures were defeated.
Chambers said statutes already
exist that permit harsher penalties.
Only Chambers and Landis voted
to kill the bill.
Landis said the bill is a “middle
class response” to the drug problem.
The bill will not do “zip,” he said.
Landis was not present when senators
voted to advance the bill.
Along with Chambers, Sens.
Frank Korshoj of Herman, Loran
Schmit of Bcllwood, Dianna
Schimek of Lincoln and Jennie Ro
bak of Columbus voted against ad
vancing the bill. All four said the bill
would do nothing to stop drug deal
ing.
Schmit said the bill was popular
because it would help no one, hurt no
one and cost nothing.
ruing up penalties won t ao a
nickel’s worth of good,” he said.
Schimek said the bill would not
necessarily act as a deterrent. The
prisons are already overpopulated,
she said.
“I think we need a different ap
proach,” she said.
Abboud said he sponsored the bill
at the request of the Omaha and
Douglas County law enforcement
officials who want stiffer penalties to
deal with the crack and cocaine prob
lems.
Between Jan. 1, 1989, and March
19,1989, six persons who could have
been convicted under LB592 were
arrested for dealing crack, Abboud
said. No one arrested for dealing
cocaine in that period would have
been affected by the cocaine sections
of the bill.
Chambers said the low figure
showed that enforcement is not work
ing.
Although the problem in Omaha is
not as severe as it in Washington,
D.C., and Los Angeles, Abboud said,
nationally known drug gangs such as
the Crips and Bloods have entered
Omaha.
Drug warfare by gangs has re
sulted in hundreds of murders in
some cities, Abboud said. In cities
like New York and Washington,
D.C., Abboud said, a person is mur
dered every night in some drug-re
lated activity.
addouq canca cracK a acaicr s .
dream” because il is easy to sell and i
is enormously profitable. Dealers can
sell it in S5 and S10 quantities, mak- .
ing it affordable for young people, he
said.
Harsher penalties against crack
and cocaine use will send a message
to drug dealers that drug use will not
be tolerated in Nebraska, Abboud
said.
Chambers said police officers
normally go after the ‘‘nickel-and
dime” drug operations without ever
attacking the big dealers who are the
root of the problem.
Even if the bill had a 50-ycar
minimum sentence for dealing drugs,
it would not stop the drug problem in
Omaha, he said.
Earlier in debate, Sen. Brad
Ashford of Omaha tried to amend the
bill to ban the making or manufactur
ing of any semi-automatic rifles that
could hold more than five rounds.
Ashford said weapons such as the
AK-47 frequently are used by drug
dealers against law enforcement offi
cials.
Speaker of the Legislature Wil
liam Barrett of Lexington ruled
against further consideration of this
amendment and a similar one be
cause they were not closely related to
the bill. Ashford appealed Barrett’s
decision, but the Legislature later
voted against overturning the ruling.
Bomb threat closes Love Library
From Staff Reports
Love Library was closed at 8 p.m.
Monday because of a possible bomb
threat, according to a sign posted at
the library.
Sgt. Mylo Bushing of the Univer
sity of Ncbraska-Lincoln Police
Department said a handwritten
bomb threat was found in the library
Monday morning on a stall in the
southwest corner of the first floor.
The note said a bomb would go off
at 9 p.m. sometime in March, Bush
ing said, and implied the threat
should be taken seriously. A patron at
the library reportedly discovered the
note, he said, and told a library em
ployee.
Bushing said the library adminis
trator who contacted the police be
lieves the note was written sometime
after Friday.
Bushing said that after the depart
ment was contacted, the police con
ducted a search of the library and nc
bomb was found. He said the Lincoln
i
Fire Department also was notified.
The decision to close the library
Monday night apparently was made
by a library administrator, Bushing
said. The closing was probably a
precautionary measure, he said.
The sign said the library will reo
pen at 8 a.m. today.
-1
Forum presents final lecture
From Staff Reports day in the Nebraska Union’s Cen
- tennial Ballroom.
Bernard Kalb, former network
correspondent and State Depart- Kalb’s talk will be the fourth
ment spokesman, will lecture on and final lecture in the 1988-89
“Global Rivals: U.S. and the Cooper-UNL Forum on World
U.S.S.R.’’ at 3:30 p.m. Wednes- Issues lecture scries.
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Commission makes suggestions
REVIEW from Paqe 1 other.
The commission also noted prog
ress in articulation and cooperative
agreements between Nebraska insti
tutions. Such agreements allow stu
dents to transfer credit hours from
one postsecondary institution to an
The commission recommended
that the state give highest priority to
developing new publicly-funded
Associate Degree of Nursing pro
grams in the Central and Northeast j
Technical Community College Ar
eas.
•
Court rules against retersen
COURT from Page 1
Aspcngren said.
Petersen said he planned to ap
point justices before the newly
elected members took office. As a
result, ASUN would have acted ac
* cording to the “spirit” of the
constitution, Petersen stated in his
written response.
But Chief Justice Tim Brogan,
reading the justices’ decision, said
the constitution is a “body of ru’ *s,’ ’
not merely a guide.
Justice David Willntan said he is
. worried that the ruling could cause
iiaM} d^;uiuui!uiw. ■
‘‘We might not have the most cf
fcctivc student court because of
this,” Willman said, ‘‘and that’s
what I think slinks.”
Willman said he was especially
concerned when Petersen said he
would not have lime to conduct oral
interviews. Willman said Petersen
should interview applicants because
he could detect important informa
tion that docs not appear on applica
tions.
Despite Petersen’s objections, the
court ordeied him to conduct oral
interviews.
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