The homepage of the US Commission on Civil Rights website now contains this disclaimer in tiny type:
On January 7th, 2005, the Commission adopted a new policy on the public release and posting of reports and Commission documents. To comply with that new policy, the website has been updated and several draft reports that failed to receive a majority of Commissioners' votes have been removed. Those reports are available upon request.
So exactly which reports are gone? The site lists them here, and they all deal with topics probably not appreciated by the Republican Commissioners, who form a majority (including the Chairman). The purged reports are:
* Briefing on Boundaries of Justice: Immigration Policies Post-September 11 (October 2001)* Briefing on Civil Rights Issues Facing Muslims and Arab Americans in Ohio Post-September 11 (November 2001)
* Briefing on Civil Rights Issues Facing Muslims and Arab Americans in Minnesota Post-September 11 (February 2002)
* Briefing on Civil Rights Issues Facing Muslims and Arab Americans in Wisconsin Post-September 11 (April 2002)
* Briefing on Civil Rights Issues Facing Muslims and Arab Americans in Indiana Post-September 11 (May 2002)* Briefing on the Consequences of Government Race Data Collection Bans on Civil Rights (May 2002)
* Briefing on Civil Rights Issues Facing Muslims and Arab Americans in North Dakota Post-September 11 (May 2002)* Haitian Asylum Seekers and U.S. Immigration Policy (June 2002)
* Voting Rights in Florida 2002: Briefing Summary (August 2002)
* Briefing on Tragedy Along the Arizona-Mexico Border: Undocumented Immigrants Face Death in the Desert (August 2002)
* Beyond Percentage Plans: The Challenge of Equal Opportunity in Higher Education (November 2002)
* Crossing Borders: The Administration of Justice and Civil Rights Protections in the Immigration and Asylum Context (January 2003)
* Education Accountability and High-Stakes Testing in the Carolinas (February 2003)
* The Supreme Court Revisits Affirmative Action: Will Grutter and Gratz Mean the End of Bakke? (April 2003)* The U.S. Department of Education’s Race-Neutral Alternatives in Postsecondary Education: Innovative Approaches to Diversity-Are They Viable Substitutes for Affirmative Action? (May 2003)
* Anniversary Update on Commission Activities Related to September 11 (September 2003)* Native American Health Care Disparities Briefing Summary (February 2004)
* Is America Ready to Vote? Election Readiness Briefing Paper (July 2004)* Closing the Achievement Gap: The Impact of Standards Based Education Reform (July 2004)
* Redefining Rights in America: The Civil Rights Record of the George W. Bush Administration (September 2004)
That last report truly rakes Bush over the coals; when it was first
posted in October, the Republican members of the Commission tried to
have it taken down. [read more] It took them four months, but they've finally succeeded.