Ishimaru’s parents, Kenzo Ishimaru and Toshiko Suzuki, who met after World War II, were both interned in the Topaz Internment Camp in Millard County, Utah, as teenagers. Born December 15, 1957, in San Jose, California, Ishimaru was student body president at Blackford High School in west San Jose. He received his AB in political science and in economics from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1980. While attending law school at George Washington University, he served as a research assistant to the US Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians in 1981 and as assistant to the director at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law from 1982-83. Ishimaru received his JD from George Washington’s  National Law Center in 1983.

 

From 1984-1991 Ishimaru served on the staff of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Civil and Constitutional Rights as an assistant counsel. He then shifted to the House Armed Services Committee, serving on two subcommittees from 1991-1993.

 

His quiet political life ended in December 1993, when President Bill Clinton appointed Ishimaru to be the acting staff director of the US Commission on Civil Rights—a decision that set off a turf war between the White House and members of the commission. The saga began in November 1993, when commission chairwoman Mary Frances Berry, a Clinton appointee, fired acting staff director Bobby D. Doctor, a black civil rights activist who had allied himself with the commission’s conservative members, thus giving off the perception that he had “gotten into bed with the enemy.”

 

After Doctor was shown the door, Clinton quickly appointed Ishimaru. But right after that, some of the commissioners voted to reinstate Doctor, against Berry’s wishes. Berry then ruled that the vote was invalid, which prompted the commission’s general counsel, Lawrence Glick, to conclude that Berry had acted improperly in nullifying the vote to bring back Doctor—so Berry fired Glick, too.

 

The following month, in January 1994, the conservative members of the commission rejected Ishimaru as acting staff director in a vote, but that decision was stonewalled when Berry and other commissioners abstained from the voting. While the machinations played out, Ishimaru assumed the office of staff director, one of the most powerful posts at the commission, managing it on a daily basis and implementing policies.

 

The political soap opera continued in April 1994, when US District Judge Royce C. Lamberth ruled that Ishimaru should step down as acting staff director, on grounds that he had no legal authority to serve after the commission voted to reject his appointment. Judge Lamberth also denied the Clinton administration’s request for a two-week stay to allow Ishimaru to finish up his work at the commission.

 

But rather than leave the agency, Ishimaru was given the position of executive assistant, reporting directly to chairwoman Berry. Although he moved out of his old office, Ishimaru continued to work in the staff director’s suite of offices. Despite the change in title, some staff members continued to report informally to Ishimaru, creating confusion among the staff and giving the impression that the judge’s ruling was being ignored.

 

Eventually, the ordeal ended later in 1994 when Clinton found a new home for Ishimaru—in the Department of Justice. He was given the post of counsel to the assistant attorney general in the Civil Rights Division. He provided advice on a broad range of issues, including legislative affairs, politics and strategies; maintained liaison between the office and Congress; and supervised fair housing and fair lending, equal employment opportunity, education, and Voting Rights Act litigation. Ishimaru also testified before Congressional committees on fair housing issues.

 

By 1999, he rose to deputy assistant attorney general in the Civil Rights Division, working as a principal advisor to the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights and advising on management, policy, and political issues. He supervised more than 100 attorneys in high-profile litigation, including employment discrimination cases, fair housing and fair lending cases, criminal police misconduct, hate crime and slavery prosecutions, and enforcement of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

 

With the arrival of the Bush administration, Ishimaru left the Justice Department in 2001. Two years later, US Sen. Tom Daschle (D-ND) recommended him for a seat on the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. He received a second term in December 2007, which expires on July 1, 2012. During his tenure on the EEOC, Ishimaru has primarily focused on large, systemic cases and in reinvigorating the agency’s work on race discrimination issues. He also played a role in the EEOC’s adoption of guidance on gender discrimination against workers with caregiving responsibilities.

 

In addition, Ishimaru opposed the EEOC’s actions to weaken age discrimination protections, as well as to suppress collection of full data on workers of two or more races. He also opposed efforts to outsource and reorganize key EEOC functions.

 

In the closing days of the Bush administration, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) installed a new rule that allows health care providers who receive federal grants to opt out of care based on their moral or religious beliefs. The move provoked objections from numerous political circles, including a “strenuous protest” from Ishimaru, another EEOC Democratic member, Christine Griffin, and the EEOC’s counsel, Reed Russell, who was appointed by President Bush. According to Ishimaru and Russell, neither HHS nor the White House consulted with EEOC prior to issuing the proposed regulation.

 

In addition to his government service, Ishimaru has taught graduate courses in equal employment opportunity at American University. He is also a long-time member of the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL).

 

Ishimaru is married to Agnieszka Fryszman, an attorney, and they have two sons, Matthew and Benjamin.

 

Stuart J. Ishimaru Bio (EEOC)

Stuart J. Ishimaru Bio (Corean-American Studies, Inc.)

President Appoints Stuart Ishimaru Acting EEOC Chairman, Christine Griffin Named Acting Vice Chair (EEOC press release)

Protests Over a Rule to Protect Health Providers (by Robert Pear, New York Times)

Can you still count on the EEOC? Critics say reorganization may affect handling of discrimination claims. (by Reed K. Terrell, Black Enterprise)

Anti-Discrimination Laws and Their Relationship to Citizenship (by Stuart J. Ishimaru, Institute for Corean-American Studies, Inc.)

JACL Commends White House for Nominating Stuart Ishimaru to EEOC; Calls on the Senate for Swift Confirmation Vote (JACL press release)

Topaz Site Offers Stark Reminder of WWII Hysteria (by Jason Swensen, Deseret News)