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PRESIDENT CLINTON NAMES A. LEON HIGGINBOTHAM, JR. TO THE
U.S. COMMISSION ON CIVIL RIGHTS
President Clinton announced today his intent to appoint A. Leon
Higginbotham, Jr. to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.
Leon Higginbotham, Jr. of Massachusetts is of Counsel to Paul,
Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison in their New York and Washington
offices and is Public Service Professor of Jurisprudence at Harvard
University. Until he retired in 1993, he served as a Circuit Court
Judge and as Chief Judge Emeritus of the United States Court of Appeals
for the Third Circuit. He was appointed a District Court Judge in 1964
and a Court of Appeals Judge in 1977. He served as Vice Chairman of the
National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence under
President Johnson and Commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission under
President Kennedy. He is a former President of the Philadelphia NAACP
and is a former Commissioner of the Pennsylvania Human Relations
Commission. Judge Higginbotham, the recipient of more than 60 honorary
degrees, earned a B.A. from Antioch College in 1949 and a LL.B. from
Yale Law School in 1952.
The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights was established by Congress
under the Civil Rights Act of 1957. Its primary responsibilities are:
investigating allegations of discriminatory denial of the right to vote;
collecting information about violations of equal protection and civil
rights based on race, age, disability, religion, sex, or national
origin; evaluating federal laws regarding discrimination; conducting
hearings and briefings in civil rights; and submitting reports,
findings, and recommendations to the President and Congress.