William Bradford Reynolds
10th United States Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division
In office
1981 – December 9, 1988
PresidentRonald Reagan
Preceded byDrew S. Days III
Succeeded byJohn R. Dunne
Personal details
Born1942
Bridgeport, Connecticut
DiedSeptember 14, 2019(2019-09-14) (aged 77)
Seabrook Island, South Carolina
Political partyRepublican

William Bradford Reynolds (June 21[1] or July 21,[2] 1942 – September 14, 2019) was an American attorney who served as the United States Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division from 1981 to 1988.[3][4][5]

Reynolds was Senior Counsel in BakerBotts Antitrust and Competition division. He graduated with a LL.B. from Vanderbilt University Law School in 1967 where he was Order of the Coif and Editor-in-Chief of the Vanderbilt Law Review. In 1964, he received a B.A. from Yale University.[6]

He died of cancer on September 14, 2019, in Seabrook Island, South Carolina at age 77.[7]

Civil rights

To many civil rights proponents in the 1980s Reynolds was the quintessence of Reagan-era policies against civil rights enforcement. The civil rights division of the Justice Department was created by President Dwight Eisenhower in 1957. The Washington Post wrote in 1988 that Reynolds "will have a place in the history books as the first assistant attorney general for civil rights to try to get the federal government, local governments and even the courts to halt a wide range of established civil rights reforms, from affirmative action to busing." According to Nicholas Katzenbach:[8]

The department is supposed to defend the disadvantaged, the people who are victims of discrimination. Either Mr. Reynolds doesn't understand what civil rights is all about or he is not interested in the pursuit of equality. Rights for Americans seems to him to mean rights for white males.

The Senate Judiciary Committee refused to confirm him when he was nominated for associate attorney general. He was called "mean spirited", "rigid" and the "Scrooge of the Justice Department", "the principal architect of a comprehensive attack on our civil rights laws" and an "ideologue", with a "lack of respect for the Supreme Court and Congress".[8]

Further reading

References

  1. ^ "Nomination of William Bradford Reynolds To Be Associate Attorney General | The American Presidency Project". www.presidency.ucsb.edu. Retrieved 2024-01-10.
  2. ^ Foundation, Landmark Legal (2019-09-23). "In Memoriam: William Bradford Reynolds". Landmark Legal Foundation. Retrieved 2024-01-10.
  3. ^ Garcia, Philip J. (November 9, 1988). "Assistant Attorney General William Bradford Reynolds, the Justice Department's Controversial Civil Rights Chief, Resigned Wednesday Effective Dec. 9". United Press International (UPI). Retrieved 22 December 2015.
  4. ^ Pear, Robert (8 June 1981). "Man In The News; Reagan' Choice For Civil Rights Post". New York Times. Retrieved 15 June 2017.
  5. ^ Williams, Lena (4 January 1987). "William Bradford Reynolds; Perception and Reality on Civil Rights". New York Times. Retrieved 15 June 2017.
  6. ^ "William Bradford Reynolds | People | Baker Botts LLP". web.archive.org. 2016-05-22. Retrieved 2024-01-10.
  7. ^ "Bradford Reynolds Obituary - Washington, DC | The Washington Post". Legacy.com. Retrieved 2019-10-16.
  8. ^ a b Williams, Juab (January 10, 1988). "In his mind but not his heart". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2 January 2024.

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