Bush Nominee for EEOC Bitterly Withdraws
By Jennifer Millman
August 24, 2007
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) nominee David Palmer has bitterly withdrawn his nomination after an 11-month confirmation process turned sour when allegations of discriminatory practices and poor management from high-ranking Justice Department officials raised questions about whether he was fit for the job. Sen. Barack Obama is one of those who has been most publicly pleased about Palmer's withdrawal.
The EEOC has five commissioners, no more than three of whom can be of any one political party. Commissioners are nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate to five-year staggered terms.
In September, President Bush nominated Palmer, chief of the Employment Litigation section in the Department of Justice's (DoJ) Civil Rights Division, to fill the Republican slot vacated when former EEOC Chair Cari Dominguez stepped down a year ago.. Bush resubmitted Palmer's nomination to the new Congress in January for a term that would have extended through July 2011.
Road to Withdrawal: The Allegations
Initially, the confirmation of Palmer, who is Latino, seemed a sure thing. Many civil-rights leaders and high-ranking federal officials doubted his suitability for the position, but the White House coupled Palmer's nomination with the re-nomination of Commissioner Stuart Ishimaru, who was originally appointed by Bush to the commission in 2003 and is esteemed by many Democratic senators and civil-rights groups, according to the Washington Post. Senate supporters said that the administration indicated that if Palmer's confirmation didn't go through, neither would Ishimaru's re-nomination.
Then the dam broke.
Eight former DoJ officials wrote a letter opposing Palmer's confirmation, accusing him of poor leadership and ineffective management during his tenure that undermined the mission of the department.
According to the three-page letter, the section filed fewer cases to fulfill its mission of protecting the rights of underrepresented groups, and filed two "reverse-discrimination lawsuits" during his tenure. More broadly, DoJ also has been accused of defending employers' rights to discriminate on the basis of religion, according to the International Association of Official Human Rights Agencies (IAOHRA).
Most alarming are the alleged discrimination complaints against Palmer himself. The letter claims that Palmer treated co-workers with "disdain and contempt," and was "at least once" the subject of a discrimination complaint, which arose after he allegedly tried to get a woman with whom he had been romantically involved fired from federal service. Palmer also indicated the existence of a second complaint in testimony he delivered to the HELP Committee, although the details remain unknown, according to IAOHRA.
This raises serious questions about Palmer's suitability as an EEOC commissioner, who is responsible for protecting and enforcing Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
"Had he been confirmed, his credibility would have been seriously undermined, just based on the allegations about his supervisory managerial style," says Gilbert F. Casellas, former chair of the U.S. Equal Employment Commission and a member of Mintz Levin Cohn Ferris Glovsky & Popeo's Washington, D.C., office. Casellas writes a monthly legal column for DiversityInc magazine and DiversityInc.com. Read his latest column, and subscribe now.
More importantly, Palmer's record as chief of DoJ's employment-law section raises concerns about his priorities as they relate to civil rights, adds Casellas.
"Given that the EEOC is the principal law-enforcement agency for workplace discrimination, it's important that the people who occupy those positions be folks who are respected both for their knowledge of the law and respect for the law," he says.
Obama also expressed concern about Palmer's nomination, and sent a letter July 23 to Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., who chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, and ranking member Michael Enzi, R-Wy., to that effect.
"Latinos filed over half of the nearly 300 charges of national origin discrimination that the EEOC referred to the Employment Litigation Section while Mr. Palmer led that section," wrote Obama. "Yet, during his tenure, he brought only one case on behalf of a Latino complainant. And while Mr. Palmer told HELP staff that he recognized that African Americans and Latinos suffer employment discrimination, he could not explain why the section filed almost as many cases alleging national origin or race discrimination against whites as against African Americans and Latinos combined."
Read Obama's letter.
Palmer's Response
Palmer, a 19-year DoJ employee, dismissed the allegations made against him and denounced the confirmation process as out-of-control partisan politics. But he took it personally, criticizing "assaults upon my integrity, professionalism, and acumen as an attorney" by former DoJ colleagues, "who appear to harbor a personal animosity to my nomination," in an Aug. 4 letter to the President withdrawing his nomination.
"The attack upon my ... professional reputation by former employees of the Department of Justice is baseless and, in a demeaning and calculating way, the kind of insidious conduct that is usually motivated by underlying bigotry and prejudice," wrote Palmer. "Ironically, of course, it is the [DOJ's] and the EEOC's mission to combat this kind of prejudice. Equally troubling to me was the fact that some chose to further publicize these attacks, without any apparent regard for their truth or the effect these baseless charges would have on me and my family."
Palmer said he faced irrelevant lines of questioning during the confirmation process, and was insulted by insinuations by former DoJ officials that he would ignore discrimination against Latinos because he is the son of Latino immigrants. "In my opinion, this nomination process has become a forum for besmirching my reputation as a government lawyer--and as a Latino individual with a long-standing commitment to civil rights--without the opportunity for personal or professional vindication," he wrote.
Palmer maintained he has a history of stellar performance evaluations, which have earned him several DoJ performance awards.
The White House has no record of him violating employment law during his tenure, and expressed disappointment over his withdrawal. "While serving for almost two decades as a career employee at the Department of Justice, [Palmer] has been widely respected as a knowledgeable attorney who possesses a strong work ethic and sincere commitment to equal justice for all Americans," a White House spokesperson said. "We are obviously disappointed that he has asked for his nomination to be withdrawn. The president believes Mr. Palmer would have been an effective advocate of the Commission's important mission and appreciates his willingness to serve in this position."
Obama, however, was pleased with Palmer's decision to withdraw, given the mass opposition to his confirmation. "Every Equal Employment Opportunity Commissioner must have a history of achievement and an unwavering commitment to enforcing anti-discrimination laws in the workplace," Obama said in a statement. "The President should appoint a nominee with a clear record of fairness and the judgment necessary to enforce employment laws."
Bush has yet to nominate a replacement.
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