President Announces Intent to Re-Nominate Constance Barker EEOC Commissioner

The White House
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release
May 18, 2011


Constance Smith Barker, Nominee for Member, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

Constance Smith Barker currently serves as Commissioner of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Prior to her appointment by President George W. Bush, Ms. Barker was a shareholder for 13 years at the law firm of Capell & Howard, P.C. in Montgomery, Alabama. Before she entered private practice, Ms. Barker was General Counsel to the Mobile County Public School System for 11 years. She also served as a part-time municipal judge for two municipalities in Mobile County, Alabama and was active in Mobile County’s juvenile justice system. Previously, Ms. Barker worked as an Assistant District Attorney in the 11th and 13th Judicial Circuits of Alabama. In 2007, she was awarded the Alabama State Bar’s Award of Merit for outstanding service to the legal profession. Ms. Barker has served on the boards of the Mobile Area YWCA and the Montgomery Symphony Orchestra. She holds a B.A. from Notre Dame University and a J.D. from the University of Alabama, School of Law.

http://m.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/05/18/president-obama-announces-more-key-administration-posts-5182011

Your Take: Why Elena Kagan is a Good Choice for the Supreme Court

the Root.com
By: Charles J. Ogletree Jr.
Posted: May 12, 2010 at 5:42 PM
Former Harvard Law colleague Charles Ogletree Jr. offers a vigorous defense of the nominee.

I am writing to follow up on some of the concerns I am hearing about my colleague Elena Kagan's civil rights record and whether she would be a fit candidate for the U.S. Supreme Court. While it is certainly up to the President to find the ideal person and to look at a number of factors in reaching a decision, I hear criticisms of Elena Kagan that are contrary to my knowledge of her during the last 25 years or so, and that do not adequately represent her record. I share this with you so that you'll have a more complete assessment of Elena Kagan's views on race and civil rights matters.
After graduating from Harvard Law School and clerking in the circuit court, Kagan ultimately clerked for Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. I don't think anyone can recall a negative word that Marshall ever said about Elena Kagan, and in fact, when he spoke about her, it was always in glowing terms. Elena taught at the University of Chicago before joining the Harvard Law School faculty. As a result of Kagan's tenacity, focus, and clarity, the university leadership ultimately appointed her as the first woman dean of Harvard Law School.

Full Story: http://www.theroot.com/views/your-take-why-elena-kagan-good-choice-supreme-court?page=0,0

White House circulating pro-Kagan talking points on diversity

Salon.com
Thursday, May 6, 2010 15:19 ET
By Mike Madden

For the moment, the White House hasn't settled on a nominee to replace retiring Justice John Paul Stevens on the Supreme Court. But that doesn't mean the administration is sitting quietly as the legal and political world speculates about who President Obama's pick might be.
In the last couple of weeks, after Salon's Glenn Greenwald linked to this post by Duke University law professor Guy-Uriel Charles raising questions about the minority hiring rate at Harvard Law School when Elena Kagan was dean there, White House officials started circulating a set of talking points pushing back on the criticism, sending it out to various groups allied with the administration....

Take a look at the talking points here.

Full story: http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2010/05/06/white_house_kagan_talking_points/index.html

President Obama Nominates P. David Lopez, EEOC General Counsel

THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release October 22, 2009

President Obama Announces More Key Administration Posts

WASHINGTON – Today, President Barack Obama announced his intent to nominate the following individuals to key administration posts:

P. David Lopez, Nominee for General Counsel, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

David Lopez has served at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) for 13 years in the field and at headquarters. He began at the EEOC in 1994 as a Special Assistant to Commissioner Casellas. Currently, Mr. Lopez is a Supervisory Trial Attorney with the EEOC’s Phoenix District Office. During his tenure, Mr. Lopez has successfully tried several cases on behalf of the EEOC in a wide variety of legal bases. Before joining the Commission, Mr. Lopez served at the Civil Rights Division, Employment Litigation Section, at the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. from 1991 to 1994. From 1988 to 1991, he was an Associate with Spiegel and McDiarmid. Mr. Lopez received a Juris Doctor degree from Harvard Law School in 1988 and a Bachelor of Science in Political Science from Arizona State University in 1985, magna cum laude.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/president-obama-announces-more-key-administration-posts-102309

Sara Manzano-Diaz, Nominee for Director of the Women's Bureau, Department of Labor

THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE September 30, 2009
President Obama Announces More Key Administration Posts

WASHINGTON – Today, President Barack Obama announced his intent to nominate the following individuals to key administration posts:
Sara Manzano-Diaz, Director of the Women's Bureau, Department of Labor ...

President Obama announced his intent to nominate the following individual[s] today:
Sara Manzano-Diaz, Nominee for Director of the Women's Bureau, Department of Labor Sara Manzano-Diaz has spent her career in public service advocating on behalf of working class families, women, and girls. She has more than 25 years of federal, state, and judicial experience including 16 years in senior management. Most recently, she was appointed by Governor Edward G. Rendell as Deputy Secretary for Regulatory Programs at the Pennsylvania Department of State. As Deputy Secretary, and the highest-ranking Latina in Pennsylvania state government, Ms. Manzano-Diaz is responsible for protecting the health, safety, and welfare of the public by overseeing the licensure of approximately 1 million professionals. Ms. Manzano-Diaz is also a member of Gov. Rendell’s STEM Initiative Team that supports the development of science, technology, engineering and mathematics education and workforce development programs. Previously, she served as Deputy General Counsel for Civil Rights and Litigation at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, where she enforced fair housing, civil rights, and anti-discrimination laws. While at HUD, she implemented a compliance agreement against the largest public housing authority in the country that resulted in the creation of 9,000 disabled housing units in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. She also previously served as an Assistant Attorney General in New York and a Pro Se Attorney in the New York State Judiciary. She has served as Co-Chair of The Forum of Executive Women’s Mentoring Committee, which mentors young professional women as they begin their careers, and also participated in Madrinas, a program that provides mentors for at-risk Latina girls to encourage them to finish high school and attend college. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Public Relations and Communications from Boston University and a Law Degree from Rutgers University School of Law.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/President-Obama-Announces-More-Key-Administration-Posts-9/30/09/

President Obama Announces Intent to Nominate Chai Feldblum to EEOC

The White House
September 14, 2009

President Obama announced his intent to nominate the following individuals today:

Chai R. Feldblum, Nominee for Commissioner, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
Chai Feldblum is a Professor of Law at the Georgetown University Law Center where she has taught since 1991. She also founded the Law Center’s Federal Legislation and Administrative Clinic, a program designed to train students to become legislative lawyers. Feldblum previously served as Legislative Counsel to the AIDS Project of the American Civil Liberties Union. In this role, she developed legislation, analyzed policy on various AIDS-related issues, and played a leading role in the drafting of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and, later as a law professor, in the passage of the ADA Amendments Act of 2008. She has also worked on advancing lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights and has been a leading expert on the Employment Nondiscrimination Act. As Co-Director of Workplace Flexibility 2010, Feldblum has worked to advance flexible workplaces in a manner that works for employees and employers. Feldblum clerked for Judge Frank Coffin and for Supreme Court Justice Harry A. Blackmun. She received her J.D. from Harvard Law School and B.A. from Barnard College.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/President-Obama-Announces-More-Key-Administration-Posts-9/14/09/

Tom Perez to be nominated as Assistant AG for Civil Rights

The Washington Post
(Reported in: First 100 Days from Smart Brief)
Posted at 6:53 PM ET on Mar 13, 2009
By Scott Wilson

President Obama announced Friday that he would nominate Tom Perez, a former member of the Montgomery County Council, for the position of assistant attorney general for civil rights at the U.S. Department of Justice.A prominent civil-rights lawyer, Perez now serves as secretary of Maryland's Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation, which enforces workplace safety laws, among other regulations.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2009/03/13/obama_rounds_out_staffs_at_age.html