A．the federal courts have much bigger power.B．the feder……
TEXT B
Paula Jones’case against
Bill Clinton is now, for all possible political consequences and capacity for
media sensation, a fairy routine lawsuit of its kind. It does, however, have
enormous social significance. For those of us who care about sexual harassment,
the matter of Jones v. Clinton is a great conundrum. Consider: if Jones, the
former Arkansas state employee, proves her claims, then we must face the fact
that we helped to elect someone--Bill Clinton--who has betrayed us on this vital
issue. But if she is proved to be lying, then we must accept that we pushed onto
the public agenda an issue that is venerable to manipulation by alleged victims.
The skeptics will use Jones case to cast doubt on the whole cause.
Still, Ms Jones deserves the chance to prove her case; she has a right to
pursue this claim and have the process work. It will be difficult: these kinds
of cases usually are, and Ms. Jones task of suing a sitting president is harder
than most.
She does have one thing sitting on her side: her case
is in the courts. Sexual-harassment claims are really about violations of the
alleged victims civil rights, and there is no better from for determining and
assessing those violations--and finding the truth--than federal court. The
judicial system can put aside political to decide these complicated issues. That
is a feat that neither the Senate Judicial nor ethics commit-tees have been able
to accomplish--witness the Clarence-Thomas and Bob Packwood affairs. One lesson:
the legal arena, not the political one, is the place to settle these sensitive
problems.
Some have argued that the people (the "feminists") who
rallied around me have failed to support Jones. Our situations, however, are
quite different. In 1991 the country was in the middle of a public de-bate over
whether Clarence Thomas should be confirmed to the Supreme Court. Throughout
that summer, interest groups on both sides weighed in on his nomination. It was
a public forum that invited a public conversation. But a pending civil
action--even one against the president--does not generally invite that kind of
public engagement.
Most of the public seems content to let the
process move forward. And given the conundrum, am created by the claim, it is no
wonder that many ("feminists" included) have been slow to jump into the
Jones-Clinton fray. But people from all works of life remain open to her suit.
We don’t yet know which outcome we must confront: the president who betrayed the
issue or the woman who used it. Whichever it is, we should continue to pursue
sexual harassment with the same kind of energy and interest in eliminating the
problem that we have in the past, regardless of who is the accused or the
accuser. The statistics show that about 40 percent of women in the work force
will encounter some form of harassment. We can’t afford to abandon this issue
now.
The federal courts are much better than the Senate Judicial or ethics committees in determining and assessing those violations because ______.
A．the federal courts have much bigger power.
B．the federal courts are forum for determining and assessing those violations.
C．the federal courts are more impartial.
D．the federal courts are political arena.
