Editing Lani Guinier (section)

==Nomination for Assistant Attorney General==
Guinier was President [[Bill Clinton]]'s nominee for [[United States Assistant Attorney General|Assistant Attorney General]] for [[United States Department of Justice Civil Rights Division|Civil Rights]] in April 1993.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1993/04/30/news/reno-completes-most-of-lineup-at-justice-dept.html|title=Reno Completes Most of Lineup At Justice Dept.|work=The New York Times|date=April 30, 1993|access-date=January 8, 2022|archive-date=November 5, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181105160510/https://www.nytimes.com/1993/04/30/news/reno-completes-most-of-lineup-at-justice-dept.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|first=Jodi|last=Kantor|title=Teaching Law, Testing Ideas, Obama Stood Slightly Apart|date=July 30, 2008|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/30/us/politics/30law.html?ex=1375156800&en=337ecbaa93d25b8c&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink|accessdate=October 27, 2008|archive-date=March 27, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190327183252/https://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/30/us/politics/30law.html?ex=1375156800&en=337ecbaa93d25b8c&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink|url-status=live}}</ref> Conservative journalists and [[United States Republican Party|Republican]] senators mounted a campaign against Guinier's nomination. Guinier was dubbed a "quota queen," a phrase first used in a ''Wall Street Journal'' op-ed by [[Clint Bolick]], a Reagan-era [[U.S. Justice Department]] official.<ref>Bolick, Clinton (1993) "Clinton's Quota Queens," ''[[Wall Street Journal]]'' op-ed, April 30, 1993.</ref> The term was perceived by some to be racially loaded, combining the "[[welfare queen]]" stereotype with "quota," a buzzword used to challenge affirmative action.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Ireland|first=Patricia|date=June 27, 1993|title=Still Fighting the Double Standard|page=Chicago Tribune|work=Chicago Tribune|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1993-06-27-9306270039-story.html|access-date=January 7, 2022}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|title=Affirmative Action|work=Weekend Edition Sunday|publisher=[[National Public Radio]] (NPR)|url=https://www.npr.org/2003/01/19/926348/affirmative-action|date=January 19, 2003|access-date=January 7, 2022}}</ref> In fact, Guinier opposed racial quotas, as she attempted to make clear, responding to the misrepresentation of her views by invoking her father's experience at Harvard: "He was a victim of a racial quota, a quota of one. I have never been in favor of quotas. I could not be, knowing my father's experience."<ref>{{Cite news|last=Tackett|first=Michael|date=June 5, 1993|title=Guinier Defends Her views, Denies She Backs Quotas|work=The Chicago Tribune|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1993-06-05-9306050143-story.html|access-date=January 7, 2022|archive-date=March 8, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210308140252/https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1993-06-05-9306050143-story.html|url-status=live}}</ref> As one reviewer of her work wrote: "The remedies Guinier advocates for diluted minority voting rights do not include laws that guarantee election outcomes for disadvantaged groups."<ref>{{Cite news|date=March 21, 1994|title=Lani Guinier States Her Case|work=[[Christian Science Monitor]]}}</ref>

Some journalists also alleged that Guinier's writings indicated that she supported the shaping of electoral districts to ensure a black majority, a process known as "race-conscious districting." Political science and law professor [[Carol M. Swain]] argued that Guinier was in favor of "segregating black voters in black-majority districts."<ref>{{Cite news|last=Swain|first=Carol M.|date=June 3, 1993|title=Opinion {{!}} Black-Majority Districts: A Bad Idea|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1993/06/03/opinion/blackmajority-districts-a-bad-idea.html|access-date=January 7, 2022|issn=0362-4331|archive-date=November 23, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211123035633/https://www.nytimes.com/1993/06/03/opinion/blackmajority-districts-a-bad-idea.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|last=Cohen|first=Joshua|date=June 13, 1993|title=n the End, Distortion Triumphed Over Lani Guinier's Writings|page=141|work=The New York Times}}</ref> Guinier was portrayed as a racial polarizer who believed—in the words of [[George Will]]—that "only blacks can properly represent blacks."<ref>{{Cite web|last=Will|first=George F.|date=June 13, 1993|title=Sympathy For Guinier|url=https://www.newsweek.com/sympathy-guinier-194016|access-date=January 7, 2022|website=[[Newsweek]]|language=en}}</ref>

In the face of the negative media attention, many [[US Democratic Party|Democratic]] senators, including [[David Pryor]] of [[Arkansas]], [[Ted Kennedy]] of [[Massachusetts]], and [[Carol Moseley-Braun]] of [[Illinois]] (the only African American serving in the Senate at that time),<ref name="Smith 2009">{{Cite book
|last=Clinton
|first=William Jefferson
|title=My Life
|year=2005
|isbn=1-4000-3003-X
|page={{Page needed|date=September 2010}}
|no-pp=yes
|location=New York City
|publisher=Knopf
}}</ref> informed Clinton that Guinier's interviews with senators were going poorly and urged him to withdraw Guinier's nomination.<ref>Leff, Laurel (1993), "From legal scholar to quota queen: what happens when politics pulls the press into the groves of academe," ''[[Columbia Journalism Review]]'' 32:3 (September–October 1993).</ref>

Clinton withdrew Guinier's nomination on June 4, 1993. He stated that Guinier's writings "clearly lend themselves to interpretations that do not represent the views I expressed on civil rights during the [presidential] campaign."<ref name="David G. Savage">{{cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-06-05-mn-43571-story.html|title=Guinier's Ideas Viewed as Largely Theoretical : Nominee: In her 'academic' article on voting rights, the conclusions she reaches appear to be tentative|first=David G. |last=Savage|work=[[Los Angeles Times]]|date=June 5, 1993|access-date=March 17, 2014|archive-date=March 18, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140318003146/http://articles.latimes.com/1993-06-05/news/mn-43571_1_voting-rights|url-status=live}}</ref> Guinier, for her part, acknowledged that her writings were often "unclear and subject to vastly different interpretations," but believed that the political attacks had distorted and caricatured her academic philosophies.<ref name="David G. Savage" /> [[William T. Coleman Jr.]], who had served as [[Secretary of Transportation]] under President [[Gerald Ford]], wrote that the withdrawal was "a grave [loss], both for President Clinton and the country. The President's yanking of the nomination, caving in to shrill, unsubstantiated attacks, was not only unfair, but some would say political cowardice."<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://archive.fairvote.org/reports/1993/quotes.html|title=Notable Quotes for 1993|website=archive.fairvote.org|access-date=March 17, 2014|archive-date=March 18, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140318001803/http://archive.fairvote.org/reports/1993/quotes.html|url-status=live}}</ref>