Perez to face tough confirmation hearing

WASHINGTON, April 5 (UPI) -- Thomas Perez, a Maryland lawyer nominated to head the U.S. Justice Department's civil rights division, will be in for a tough confirmation fight, analysts say.

The civil rights post has always been a lightning rod for U.S. Senate confirmation battles, and while unnamed Senate sources say President Barack Obama's nominee will likely be confirmed, the hearings will be contentious, the Los Angeles Times reported Sunday.

"This is arguably the most difficult position to fill in the federal government when it comes to Senate confirmation," Roger Clegg, a former official in the civil rights division, told the newspaper. "Both sides feel so strongly about the issues that the division handles."

Current and former Justice Department lawyers say that under Obama and Perez, the civil rights division will probably increase prosecutions of police misconduct and racial profiling, push to make voter registration easier and give more attention to conditions in prisons, mental health facilities and nursing homes, the Times reported.

Senate opponents of affirmative action -- an issue that played a big role in the civil rights post confirmation fights of the 1990s -- will also again have their say, analysts predicted.