Following a Bush-era move to stack the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights with conservatives, the bipartisan balance of the commission has officially been restored. Democratic appointees on the commission are planning to drastically change the direction of the federal agency, which while under conservative control spent nearly a year and a half examining the Obama administration’s handling of the New Black Panther Party voter intimidation case.The commission is supposed to be bipartisan — the law stipulates that no more than four commissioners can be of any one party. But during Bush’s first term, two Republican commissioners switched their affiliation to independent to allow for the appointment of two additional Republican commissioners, which a Republican appointee later acknowledged was a move to “game” the system. One of those commissioners subsequently left the commission and the other, current Vice Chair Abigail Thernstrom, later switched her registration back to Republican, but subsequent appointments meant the commission remained GOP-leaning until this year.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=112416