PROTECTION FOR WHOM?

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000200600053-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 9, 1999
• Sequence Number: 53
• Publication Date: August 11, 1966
• Content Type: NSPR

0
WASHINGTON POgr
AND TIMES IIER
Sanitized - Approved For Release : `tR-RDP75-001
AUG 1 1 1966
FOIAb3b
rotectio for Whom?..
.Ervin 's ".Bill o'f .Rights'
By Alfred Friendly
. I 1
In civil rights, as else- tory headcount system by ice except as part of a mcdi-
where, one man's meat Is supervisors. Present Federal cal examination conducted
another man's poison. New employes and those newly by. qualified doctors. The
d
legislation proposed Tues- designate are . now themselves asked to
-vol-- Federal Aviation Agency has
clay by Sen.
untarily and under secrecy insisted on them for air traf-
Sam J. Ervin
where emo-
fie controllers
procedures - as Negroes
,
,
Jr. (D-N.C) American Indians, Spanish- tional stability is the sine
:as a "Bill of Americans, Orientals or qua non for safety, and the
Rights" fore "none of these" (i.e. Cau- CIA must certainly use them.
Federal work easion). Would their flat prohibi- 7
ers is a case t' r fi; tion invade and inhibit nce-
CPYRGHT
0
In point. IN THEORY, the informa? essary medical procedure in
Ervin sees Lion is known only to a special situations?
as a poison computer, recorded against The third principal tat ,et ous violation ., the employe's Social Se- of the bill is enforced finan-
of Constitu- ? curity number, not his name. cial 'disclosures. Ervin con_
tional' rights Friendly Information on numbers cedes the necessity for top
a civil service procedure to and. ratios of Negro and -officials and those with con-
put meat on part of the skel- other minority employes- tract and tax liability deter-
eton of Negroes' civil rights. in the absolute and by job mination duties to reveal
The he Senator has a splen- ? level-is thus instantly avail- their financial interests. His*
(lid record as an expert on able and current. The aim,objection is that instead of.
and champion of Constitu- of course, is to detect the requirement falling on a,
tional rights. He has an agencies where employment few hundred employes, it
equally consistent record of to chart discrimination changes., and hits tens of thousands.
.
voting "No" on all four maj- ~ Financial disclosure is to
or Civil Rights laws, begin- Ervin claims the secrecy prevent conflict of interest
ping in 1957. His new bill is and voluntary aspects of the situations and, it can be
consistent with both atti- procedure are being violat- argued, it is a device. for the
tudes. ed, but can cite only a hand- employe's own protection.
It would forbid Federal of- ful of complaints from the Psychiatric tests arc to pre-
ficials from pressuring their entire Federal service. vent emotionally unsuited
subordinates In ten areas. In Is the system bad? Ervin persons from holding sensi
aays yes. Doubtless Negro tive jobs.
seven-enforcing se-en Civil Rights groups and the If Congress denies the Ex
outside meetings, r nce Equal Employment Opportu- ecutive Branch the tools to
at -
tog political and denying other n counsel, attendance a ccon-
nity Commission would dis achieve those purposes, will.
agree. it be resigned to lapses that
at disciplinary proceedings, The bill's second major
etc.-Ervin Is clearly against occur?
sin. prohibition is of psychologi- If a Federal Commttnica?.
cal and lie-detector tests con- tibns Commission employe
Three other prohibitions taining questions on sexual feathers his own nest by his
are more arguable and more conduct and attitudes and rulings or if a homosexuals
important. religious views. The most significant has TTearl whn1c+cn1o by lots Voice of America officer
iiew yuebuunnaue in wniei` personality indicators, the ~' -
each employe is asked to will Eu s_ siona
tests are generally discredit- , colleagues es chalk it it up 'as one.
state his race. Ervin charac- - ed and not widely used any of the inevitable risks that
terizes it as an invasion of more even outside of Gov-
privacy and a violation of.- n e r m e n t. The individual come from serving the
due process. The Civil Serv- questions, though, are not greater cause of Constitu-.
ices Commission, which pro- tional rights? '
as bad as they look. The Or will they tear the hide snulgated It, sees it as a way tester is not concerned with off the FCC and the VOQ?;,
to fulfill the purpose of Title the subject's morals or reli-
VII of the Civil Rights Act gion but in his worries and
of 1954, to insure equal em- emotional reactions.
ployment opportunities for
minorities, .,principally Ne. THEIR USE has long since
groes. been almost entirely forbid-,.
it replaces an unsatisfac- den In the Government sere-
Sanitized - Approved For Release : CIA-RDP75-00149R000200600053-9