Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Department of Justice Emails Description An account of the resource The Department of Justice received more than 11,000 e-mails in response to the agency's public solicitation for comments upon its plans to distribute the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund of 2001 established by Congress to benefit the victims of September 11 and their families. These e-mails have been organized here by date. September 11 Email September 11 Email: Body The basic content, as unstructured text; sometimes containing a signature block at the end. NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATIONAL FUND, INC. January 22, 2002 Mr. Kenneth L. Zwick Director Office of Management Programs, Civil Division U.S. Department of Justice Main Building, Room 3140 Washington, D.C. 20530 Re: September 11 Victim Compensation Fund of 2001 Dear Mr. Zwick: The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. ("LDF") is a non-profit corporation established under the law of the State of New York. It was formed to assist black persons in securing their constitutional rights through the prosecution of lawsuits and to provide legal services to those suffering injustice by reason of racial discrimination. LDF's first Director-Counsel was Justice Thurgood Marshall. For six decades, LDF attorneys have represented parties in litigation in federal and state courts, including the seminal case of Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483 (1954). We urge you to consider carefully the detailed analysis submitted to you on this date by the NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund but write separately to express our deep concerns regarding published reports that the Special Master of the September 11 Victim Compensation Fund, through implementation of the Interim Final Rules, intends to use life expectancy tables1 that discriminate against minority and female victims of the September 11 terrorist attacks. It is simply incomprehensible to us that an agency of the United States government would sanction the use of race-based and gender-based calculations to disadvantage people of color and women in the determination of compensation to victims. Published reports indicate that the Special Master intends to use the separate "work life expectancy" tables to generated by the Bureau of Labor Standards from 1979-80 data2. By using these tables (and any other race or gender-based tables) the federal government endorses the concept that minority and female victims of the attack, had they lived, would have faced the same discrimination in the workplace and elsewhere as existed in this country during the last fifty years. The 1979-80 data, if it is to be used, will inevitably reflect the effects of racial discrimination in this country. This is utterly at odds with the federal government's commitment to end race and gender discrimination. Use of race and gender-based classifications in this context is also unconstitutional. The federal government has, for the past fifty years, treated the struggle to end invidious discrimination on the basis of race and gender as among its highest priorities. Pursuant to the statutory prohibitions against discrimination contained in the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the United States Supreme Court struck down as unlawful the use of gender-based annuity tables in Los Angeles Dept. of Water and Power v. Manhart, 435 U.S. 702 (1978). The Supreme Court has, only recently concluded that even "benign" classifications designed to remove the effects of this Nation's history of racial discrimination are subject to strict scrutiny. Adarand Constructors v. Pena, 515 U.S. 200 (1995). There is no compelling national interest in calculating the value of an African-American life, or a woman's life, at an amount lower than that of their white or male contemporaries. Race-neutral means for making those calculations exist and should be used. The Constitution requires nothing less. We ask the Special Master to disavow publicly and forcefully the use of race-based and gender-based tables for any purpose connected with the administration of the Fund. The Special Master should also publish a detailed explanation of how award calculations will be made and what data sources will be used. The public should be given an opportunity for comment. The use of race and gender-based tables to calculate compensation to families of victims of the September 11th terrorist attacks will surely be divisive, will lead to litigation and by any measure, will be a serious mistake. Very truly yours, Comment by Elaine R. Jones, Director-Counsel NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATIONAL FUND, INC. Cc: Honorable John D. Ashcroft, Attorney General Kenneth R. Feinberg, Special Master __________________________________________ 1In a recent article in Newsday, Deputy Special Master Michael Rozen confirmed the intended use of gender and race-based tables to calculate final damages to be paid to victims of the September 11 attacks on the World Trad Center. Stephanie Saul. Less for Women? Work Life Statistics May Limit Sept. 11 Fund Payouts to Victims, Newsday (New York, N.Y.), Jan. 4, 2002. 2We understand that those tables are published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics as Worklife Estimates: Effects of Race and Education (Bulletin 2254) (Feb. 1986) and available at http://www.bls.gov/cps/cpsb2254.pdf. September 11 Email: Date The local time and date when the message was written. 2002-01-22 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource dojN002676.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. email Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2002-01-22