
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, October 19, 1993                   TAG: 9310190125
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A6   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

CLINTON PICKS LAWYER FOR CIVIL RIGHTS POST

Four months after withdrawing Lani Guinier's nomination to head the Justice Department's civil rights division, President Clinton is preparing to pick lawyer John Payton for the post, a senior administration official said Monday.

Payton, 46, corporation counsel for the District of Columbia, is highly regarded by civil rights activists for his handling of employment discrimination cases when he was a private attorney.

Clinton told radio reporters in an interview earlier Monday that Attorney General Janet Reno had recommended a nominee for the position, but he did not identify the person.

But the senior administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Payton would be nominated to be the government's chief enforcer of civil rights laws.

A graduate of Harvard Law School, Payton was a partner at the prestigious Washington law firm of Wilmer, Cutler and Pickering before he was appointed D.C. corporation counsel in 1991.

In 1988, he asked the Supreme Court to uphold Richmond's program of setting aside a percentage of municipal construction contracts for minority businesses. The high court sided with the Reagan administration and a white contractor who had challenged the set-aside program.

The appointment of Payton, who is black, could help improve Clinton's relations with civil rights activists, who are still smarting over his abandonment of Guinier's nomination.

by CNB