thursday, february 20 , 2020. the washington post ez sU A
Politics & the Nation
adam glanzman/bloomberg news
A demonstrator against Harvard University’s admission process
holds a sign during a protest in Boston in 20 18.BY NICK ANDERSONA group opposed to considering
race in college admissions on
Tuesday urged a federal appeals
court to overturn a judge’s ruling
last fall that Harvard University
does not intentionally discrimi-
nate against Asian Americans
when it selects a class.
Students for Fair Admissions,
the plaintiff in a lawsuit that had
challenged Harvard’s race-con-
scious admissions policies, filed
the o pening brief i n its bid t o have
the U.S. Court of Appeals for the
1st Circuit reverse the decision
from the t rial court in Boston.
U.S. District Judge Allison D.
Burroughs had given Harvard an
across-the-board victory in the
ruling made public Oct. 1, ending
the f irst phase of a closely watched
affirmative-action case that could
be headed for the Supreme Court.
Students for Fair Admissions filed
a notice of appeal Oct. 4. Now, the
plaintiff is arguing in a 64-page
brief that the judge’s ruling was
flawed and that the evidence
shows Asian Americans suffer apenalty when Harvard reviews
their a pplications for undergradu-
ate admission.
“Harvard today engages in the
same kind of discrimination and
stereotyping that it used to justify
quotas on Jewish applicants in t he
192 0s and 1930 s,” t he plaintiff ar-
gued in the brief. “The district
court’s decision to accept Har-
vard’s self-serving testimony over
this mountain of evidence was re-
versible error.”
The plaintiff also contends that
Harvard engages in unlawful ra-
cial balancing of its classes, that it
gives race too much weight in
admissions and that it ignores
workable alternatives that do not
rely on race o r ethnicity.
Harvard, which denies all of
those allegations, pledged Tues-
day to respond i n court.
“We will vigorously defend the
Court’s decision, which makes
clear that Harvard does not dis-
criminate on the b asis of race in i ts
admissions process, a nd that Har-
vard’s pursuit of a diverse student
body is central to its educational
mission and consistent with long-
standing Supreme Court prece-
dent,” t he u niversity said in a s tate-
ment. “To day’s filing by Students
for Fair A dmissions f urther expos-
es their ultimate goal of removing
the consideration of race in col-
lege and university a dmissions.”
[email protected]Students urge reversal
of pro-Harvard ruling
Opponents of weighing
race in college admissions
call decision flawedBY JULIE ZAUZMERThe Diocese of Harrisburg on
Wednesday became the first
Catholic diocese to seek bank-
ruptcy protection in Pennsylva-
nia, a state that led the nation in
investigating sexual abuse by
priests when it published a land-
mark report almost two years
ago.
While Pennsylvania law pre-
vents victims of long-ago abuse
from suing the alleged perpetra-
tors, a recent appellate court
decision has created a path for
victims to sue their dioceses. An
attorney for the Harrisburg Dio-
cese said it has been the target of
several lawsuits since that opin-
ion, while adding he did not
blame abuse victims for the dio-
cese’s financial instability.
“The diocese was in need of
right-sizing,” said the attorney,
Matthew Haverstick of the Klein-
bard law firm. “Bankruptcy is
really the responsible way to do
it, so it can continue to do all the
things it does, spiritually and
charitably.”
Since 2004, 20 Catholic dioces-
es in the United States have filed
for bankruptcy protection, ac-
cording to the website Bishop -
Accountability.org, which tracks
the Catholic Church’s sexual
abuse crisis. The most recent, in
September, was the Diocese of
Rochester, N.Y.
Pennsylvania sparked a wave
of state investigations of Catholic
dioceses nationwide when its
attorney general, Josh Shapiro
(D), unveiled a massive grand
jury inquiry into six dioceses,
including Harrisburg, in the
summer of 2018. (Two others, the
Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown
and the Archdiocese of Philadel-
phia, had been the subject of
earlier investigations.)
The inquiry, w hich found more
than 300 priests had allegedly
molested more than 1,000 chil-
dren in the state over the span of
many decades, inspired attorneys
general across the country to
seek documents from Catholic
dioceses. But in Pennsylvania,
statutes of limitation prevented
almost all of the named priests
who were still living from facing
criminal or civil suits.
Shapiro and a host of activists
have campaigned, so far without
success, for Pennsylvania to
change its statute on child sexcrimes and to open a window for
victims of prior abuse to sue their
abusers, as neighboring New
York and New Jersey and other
states have done in recent years.
Such a window potentially could
lead to financially devastating
lawsuits against Catholic dioces-
es, similar to the suits faced by
the Boy Scouts of America, which
filed for bankruptcy a day before
the Harrisburg Diocese.
Those proposals have not
made it through the state legisla-ture.
But the state Superior Court
recently found that victims in
some circumstances can sue a
diocese, even after the time in
which they can legally sue the
allegedly abusive priest has
passed. Haverstick, who called
the Superior Court’s decision
“bad law,” said the Harrisburg
Diocese has faced several law-
suits since that appellate deci-
sion.
“A ny o f those lawsuits by them-
selves could have been cata-
strophic. The combined liability
could be an even bigger catastro-
phe,” he said. “The advent of that
change in the law is something
that we considered” i n deciding
to file for bankruptcy while these
suits are making their way
through the courts.
A bankruptcy proceeding
would freeze those lawsuits, and
compensation for victims would
become part of the bankruptcy
judgment.
Shaun Dougherty, an activist
who has campaigned for statute-
of-limitation changes in Pennsyl-
vania and is running for the state
Senate, said he feared victims
would get far less out of abankruptcy settlement, and
would not get the day in court
that they sought. “If you’re a
victim that finally had your op-
portunity to seek justice — it’s
horrendous,” he said. “That’s how
[Catholic dioceses] operate.
They’re protecting the secrets,
the assets.”
The Diocese of Harrisburg has
already paid $12 million in settle-
ments with more than 100 abuse
victims, the diocese said in Au-
gust, after opening a window
from February through mid-May
for victims to apply for compen-
sation. The average settlement
was $114,000.
The diocese covers 15 counties
in central Pennsylvania, operat-
ing 40 schools and one hospital,
and it says 230,000 Catholics live
within its jurisdiction.
[email protected]Harrisburg Diocese, amid new claims
of sexual abuse, files for bankruptcy
marc levy/associated Press
Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro (D) at an October 2018 news conference in Harrisburg.
Shapiro has pushed for Pennsylvania to change its statute of limitations on child sex crimes.Move follows landmark
2018 investigation of
Catholic Church in Pa.“If you’re a victim...
it’s horrendous.”
Shaun Dougherty, an activist and
state senate candidate worried that
abuse victims will be shortchanged in
a bankruptcy settlementBY SHANE HARRIS,
ANNE GEARAN
AND JOSH DAWSEYPresident Trump on Wednesday
named Richard Grenell, the U.S.
ambassador to Germany, a s the next
acting director of national intelli-
gence, placing a fiercely loyal ally
atop an intelligence structure he has
frequently railed against.
It is unclear whether Trump in-
tends to nominate Grenell to fill the
top intelligence post on a perma-
nent basis, which would require
Senate confirmation.
The appointment took many in
Washington, including on Capitol
Hill, by surprise.
Grenell, a former State Depart-
ment official and communications
executive, has been a Trump confi-
dant and ad hoc adviser on issues
beyond his ambassadorial work in
Berlin.
He is a conservative foreign poli-
cy h awk and sometime media critic,
as well as a vocal supporter of Trump
on social media. He has sparked
controversy in his diplomatic role,
but also won praise in Germany and
elsewhere for taking on issues such
as gay rights in Eastern Europe and
the long-running tensions between
Kosovo and Serbia.
Grenell would be the first openly
gay member of the Trump Cabinet.
He did not respond to a request for
comment.
Trump was being pushed by
some in the intelligence community
to nominate the current acting intel-
ligence director, Joseph Maguire, to
take the job permanently, but the
president has been fixated on ap-
pointing people he believes are loyal
to him, according to White House
officials who, like others, spoke on
the condition of anonymity to dis-
cuss internal deliberations.
In recent weeks, he has asked
aides which employees are “bad” o r
“leakers” and deserve to be fired,
aides said.
In a statement, Maguire said “it
has been an honor to work along-
side the men and women of the
intelligence community” as acting
director of national intelligence,
and that he was “committed to lead-
ing [them] until Ambassador
Grenell assumes the role.”
Maguire, who was scheduled to
meet with White House officials
Thursday afternoon, was blindsid-
ed by the news, said a person famil-
iar with the matter, who spoke on
the condition of
anonymity to
discuss a sensi-
tive situation.
The New
York Times first
reported
Grenell’s ex-
pected appoint-
ment.
Grenell’s loy-
alty to the presi-
dent extends beyond his public
statements. In 2018, internal docu-
ments from the Trump Internation-
al Hotel in Washington listed
Grenell as a “Gold” l evel member of
the Trump Organization’s “Trump
Card” l oyalty program.
This is the second time that
Trump has given a prominent post
to a high-level Trump Card member.
Kelly Craft, Trump’s ambassador to
the United Nations, also had gold
status, according to the 2018 docu-
ments — “VIP Arrivals” lists that the
hotel used to alert employees to im-
portant guests. The lists were ob-
tained by The Washington Post.
Grenell’s appointment is likely to
exacerbate tensions between the
president and members of the intel-
ligence community, who have been
frequent targets of Trump’s i re.
Current and former officials
questioned Grenell’s qualifications
to lead the intelligence agencies and
said his loyalty to Trump appeared
to be the reason for his appoint-
ment.
“Nothing in Grenell’s back-
ground suggests that he has the skill
set or the experience to be an effec-
tive leader of the intelligence com-
munity,” said Nicholas J. Rasmus-sen, who was the director of the
National Counterterrorism Center
under Trump and President Barack
Obama and who has known and
worked with Maguire for over a de-
cade.
“His chief attribute seems to be
that President Trump views him as
unfailingly loyal — hardly sufficient
to make someone qualified to per-
form the duties of the DNI.”
Marc Polymeropoulos, a former
senior CIA official, questioned why
the White House had again chosen
not to nominate a permanent intel-
ligence director.
“How are both sides of the aisle
not outraged by yet another ‘acting’
role?” he said. “We are in need of the
DNI designate to provide his
thoughts on the whistleblower stat-
ute, the intelligence community
plan to thwart potential Russian in-
terference in the 2020 elections,
possible Iranian retaliation for the
Qasem Soleimani strike and other
key national security challenges.”
Grenell inspired controversy al-
most from the moment he became
ambassador in 2018. In a tweet he
posted hours after Trump said the
United States would exit the Iran
nuclear deal, Grenell wrote that
“German companies doing business
in Iran should wind down opera-
tions immediately.”
Germany and other key U.S. allies
said they intended to remain in the
agreement and the perceived ulti-
matum angered some officials in
Berlin. Grenell has also focused on
NATO and the shortfall in German
defense spending, an issue Trump
mentions frequently.
Grenell also drew criticism from
diplomats and foreign officials for
an interview with the right-wing
Breitbart news site, in which he said
he wanted to “empower” c onserva-
tives in Europe.
One U.S. official familiar with the
decision said Grenell is expected to
take up his new post quickly.
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]anne gearan, david a. Fa hrenthold and
ellen nakashima contributed to this
report.Grenell named to top intelligence post
Ambassador to Germany,
a loyal Trump confidant,
takes post on acting basis
Richard
GrenellPresidential
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