Calling his nomination dead, Republican Senator Orrin Hatch has promised to vote against Bill Lann Lee, President Clinton’s nominee to the nation’s top civil rights job. Yesterday civil rights activist Jesse Jackson joined members of the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund in New York protesting conservative opposition to Lee, who they say is immensely qualified. Margaret Fung is the executive director of the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund.

Margaret Fung: “As Asian Americans, we are dismayed and angered by the conservative campaign to derail Bill Lee’s nomination and by Senator Orrin Hatch’s sudden turnaround and announcement that the nomination was dead. We don’t accept this, and we are urging the Asian-American community to unite behind Bill and to urge Republican senators to join New York’s own Senator D’Amato in voting for Bill’s confirmation.”

The Senate is expected to vote on the appointment on Thursday. John Dunne, the assistant attorney general for civil rights under President Bush, has told Hatch that it is unfair to use Lee’s support for affirmative action as justification to deny his confirmation.