Kenneth Marcus
Assistant Secretary of Education for Civil Rights
In office August 6, 2018 – July 31, 2020
President	Donald Trump
Preceded by	Catherine E. Lhamon
Succeeded by	Kimberly Richey (acting) Catherine E. Lhamon
Personal details
Born	(1966-10-07) October 7, 1966 (age 55) Sharon, Massachusetts, U.S.
Education	Williams College (BA) University of California, Berkeley (JD)

Kenneth L. Marcus (born October 7, 1966)^{[1][unreliable source?]} is an American attorney, academic, and former government official. He served as staff director of the United States Commission on Civil Rights (OCR) under President George W. Bush^[2] and Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights at the United States Department of Education under President Donald Trump. Marcus previously served as the Lillie and Nathan Ackerman Chair in Equality and Justice in America at Baruch College in New York. He is the founder and current leader of the Brandeis Center.

Education[edit]

Kenneth L. Marcus received a Bachelor of Arts, magna cum laude, from Williams College in June 1988. He was elected a member of Phi Beta Kappa in June 1987. He received a Juris Doctor from University of California, Berkeley, School of Law, Boalt Hall in 1991.^[3]

Career[edit]

Berkeley Three case[edit]

Early in his career, Marcus served as lead counsel for the Berkeley Three, three neighbors in Berkeley, California who had protested against a planned low-income housing project for the homeless in their neighborhood in 1993 by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). A housing rights group complained about the protests and four federal HUD officials began investigating the neighbors. The neighbors sued the officials, alleging that the investigation had violated their First Amendment rights. In 1998, a federal district court ruled in favor of the neighbors and the verdict was unanimously upheld by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in 2000^[4].

Political Career[edit]

Marcus served in various roles in the George W. Bush administration, beginning as General Deputy Assistant Secretary at the Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity^[5] and serving as Staff Director of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights from 2004 to 2008.^[6] Marcus also joined with Department of Justice officials to announce the resolution of various high-profile disabilities lawsuits. In a congressional hearing in 2002 he testified about the agency's performance under his stewardship.^[5]

Throughout 2004, Marcus issued several letters clarifying federal policies regarding Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. In May 2004,he admonished recipients of federal education funds that in order to comply with Title IX they must designate a Title IX coordinator ^[7] In September 2004, Marcus issued a letter clarifying that OCR would interpret Title VI and Title IX as if they protected the rights of ethnic groups that shared a religious faith, to the same extent as if they did not share a common faith.^[8] In October 2004, Marcus issued a notice amending the regulations implementing Title IX in order to facilitate for school districts to offer single-sex public elementary and secondary education.^[9] Marcus also joined with then-Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Rene Alexander Acosta to issue guidance warning school districts to cease racially segregated activities.^[10]

Academic career[edit]

After leaving government, Marcus served as the Lillie and Nathan Ackerman Visiting Professor of Equality and Justice in America at the City University of New York Baruch College School of Public Affairs. He taught courses on Diversity Management, Anti-Semitism and Civil Rights Law, and Law for the Education Administrator. He also oversaw the Ackerman Lecture Series, which invites intellectuals and public figures to spur debate and new thinking on equality and social justice.^[11]

Israel advocacy[edit]

In early 2012, Marcus founded the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law in order to "advance the civil and human rights of the Jewish people and promote justice for all." In 2012, he was featured on The Forward's "Forward 50" list of 50 American Jews who made a significant impact on the Jewish story in the past year. The magazine characterized him as "a vocal proponent of using federal civil rights law to combat perceived campus anti-Semitism in the context of the Israel debate" and mentioned his use of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to counter campus anti-Semitism.^[12]

Marcus opposes the BDS movement that calls for comprehensive boycotts against Israel, similar to those imposed on South Africa during the Apartheid era, calling it an attempt to "resist the normalization of the Jewish people." He developed a list of criteria to determine when, in his opinion, BDS becomes anti-Semitic. The list includes examples such as unconscious hostility towards Jews and the transmission of negatively coded cultural myths.^[13]

Education lawsuits[edit]

Marcus has helped file or otherwise support Title VI complaints filed with the OCR, all related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In his first complaint, filed in 2011, Marcus claimed that the chair of the Asian and Middle Eastern Cultures department at Barnard College had "steered" a Jewish student away from taking a class with Joseph Massad, a Palestinian professor and outspoken critic of Israel. He claimed that Massad had created a hostile environment for Jewish students.^[12] University President Lee Bollinger defended Massad, claiming he had played no part in the alleged "steering." The complaint was dismissed by the OCR for lack of evidence^[14][15]

OCR dismissed four more of Marcus' complaints "with written determination letters stating that the First Amendment protects speech critical of the state of Israel and that such speech does not constitute a civil rights violation." A fifth case was dismissed due to insufficient evidence and a sixth was settled before it was investigated.^[16] Despite losing the court battles, Marcus believed that his complaints had achieved their purpose.^[17]

Assistant Secretary of Education for Civil Rights[edit]

In October 2017, President Donald Trump nominated Marcus to Assistant Secretary of Education for Civil Rights to head OCR. The nomination was confirmed by the US Senate in June 2018.^[18] Over 60 civil rights groups expressed concerns that his view of civil rights was too narrow, but as many Jewish, Christian, education, and civil rights organizations also supported him.^[19][20] Palestinian and human rights organizations protested his confirmation, claiming he would use his position to further his pro-Israel cause. Supporters dismissed these criticisms,^[21] citing Marcus' work through the Brandeis Center to support Muslim students at San Diego State University.^[22] In September 2018, Marcus reopened a seven-year-old Title VI case against Rutgers University, previously closed by the Obama administration.

Marcus resigned in July 2020 and returned to his work as head of the Brandeis Center.^[23]

Notes and references[edit]

References[edit]

Sources[edit]

Political offices
Preceded by Catherine E. Lhamon	Assistant Secretary of Education for Civil Rights 2018–2020	Succeeded by Kimberly Richey Acting