LOCKYER TAKES HIS STAND

As a devoted reader of your editorials, please forgive me for being
confused about your views after reading the very strange commentary that
ran in your paper last week ["Attorney general is breaking state law,"
Opinion, Dec. 28]. Your editorial first criticizes me for not prosecuting a
handful of local agencies who you blithely accuse, without any supporting
evidence, of violating the state's anti-affirmative action law, Proposition
209.

That law makes no mention of the attorney general, but it does specifically
authorize any group or individual with evidence that a government agency is
breaking the law to bring suit to stop it. The Pacific Legal Foundation and
other interested groups have done this and the system seems to be working
just fine.

Next, you scold me for enforcing state and federal anti-trust laws in the
Microsoft lawsuit. I will continue to work for a fair and enforceable
settlement of the case. Finally, you chastise me for enforcing the state
law that prohibits use of hallucinogenic mushrooms, possibly because you
think it's all right for medical marijuana advocates to possess and use
this dangerous drug.

To summarize: You want me to stop enforcing state drug laws and laws that
protect California businesses and consumers, but you want me to increase
enforcement of another law the Pacific Legal Foundation and other private
parties are specifically empowered to enforce on their own. You were right
in stating the attorney general isn't elected to decide which laws deserve
to be enforced. But neither was the Register.

Bill Lockyer, Sacramento