Roberts Tried to Restrict Workers' Rights

James Rowley Bloomberg.comAs a young government lawyer, Supreme Court nominee John Roberts proposed reining in the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission because its civil rights positions were "totally inconsistent" with President Ronald Reagan's policies, a newly released memo says. In a June 16, 1982, memo to Attorney General William French Smith, Roberts complained that the agency's legal strategy on employment discrimination was at odds with that of the Justice Department's civil rights division. Roberts said the EEOC had urged the Supreme Court to find that a company's seniority system was discriminatory because it had the effect of promoting fewer minorities even if there was no evidence the company intended that result. Read the full story.