Posted on 02/14/2003 8:29:30 AM PST by Dan from Michigan
Leading Democratic calls for Cox to resign
By AMY F. BAILEY
The Associated Press
2/14/03 9:56 AM
EAST LANSING, Mich. (AP) -- Melvin "Butch" Hollowell, expected to be elected chairman of the state Democratic Party this weekend, said Friday that Republican Attorney General Mike Cox should resign because he's not doing his job as the state's attorney.
Hollowell said Cox shouldn't have declined Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm's request to submit a brief supporting the University of Michigan's affirmative action admissions, which is being contested in a case before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Hollowell, a Detroit attorney, said Cox's decision violates his duty to be the governor's attorney.
"It is appropriate and necessary for the attorney general to represent the interest of his client," Hollowell said during a taping of the public affairs show, "Off the Record."
"If he can't represent the interest of his client, he can't serve as a lawyer. ... If you can't do your job, don't be on the job."
Hollowell said he doesn't know whether the party will file a complaint about Cox with the State Bar.
Cox spokesman Sage Eastman wasn't immediately available to comment Friday morning, but said earlier this week that while Cox supports diversity measures, he doesn't agree with the university's affirmative action admissions.
Cox's position is similar to that of Republican President Bush, who said last month that he supported diversity in higher education, but said Michigan "unfairly rewards or penalizes students based solely on their race." The administration later filed a brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down the university's policies.
A spokeswoman for Granholm, who was the attorney general from 1998 to 2002, said the governor plans to file a brief supporting the university's admissions policy.
As attorney general, Granholm filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the case on the state's behalf in 2001 when the case was before the U.S. 6th District Court of Appeals in Cincinnati.
I think it is generally agreed that the AG has an obligation to defend a state's laws, particularly in a situation such as this where, under existing precedent, at least, the plan is not so obviously unconstitutional that no reasonable defense can be made. But this isn't a state's law - it's the University's admissions policy; and the Michigan AG is not the University's lawyer - the University operates separately from the state government. Granholm wants the AG to file an amicus brief on behalf of the Governor in favor of the University, and the AG is quite correct in refusing to do so if he believes, which he appears to believe, that the plan is unconstitutional. That is why the AG is elected in Michigan, rather than appointed by the governor - so that he can exercise independent judgment. He is not the Governor's lawyer.
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