Professor Reynoso Comments on Obama Nomination for L.A. Times
Professor Emeritus Cruz Reynoso commented on the Obama administration's nomination of Thomas Perez, Maryland's secretary of labor, to serve as the head of the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice for a recent article in the Los Angeles Times.
The nomination of Perez comes in the wake of media reports that Obama had initially chosen Thomas Saenz, a former head of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF), who won national recognition for his work on behalf of immigrants, including his efforts challenging the legality of California's Proposition 187, the ballot initiative that sought to deny social services to undocumented immigrants. Last week, Perez received the nomination amidst speculation that the Obama administration had bypassed Saenz in order to avoid a political battle with anti-immigration groups.
Professor Reynoso told the Times that he was "a little bit disappointed, frankly, that if what I hear is true, it may mean that the president is not willing to enter into the fight that I think we have to enter into to do any good on immigration."
A member of the UC Davis School of Law faculty since 2001, Professor Reynoso is an internationally known civil rights leader, the first Latino to sit on the California Supreme Court, and a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor. He has been awarded the UC Davis Medal, the university's highest honor, and the Law School has established the Cruz & Jeannene Reynoso Scholarship for Legal Access to help students with financial needs.