Gale Encyclopedia of American Law Volume 2 P17 fully illuminates today's leading cases, major statutes, legal terms and concepts, notable persons involved with the law, important documents and more. Legal issues are fully discussed in easy-to-understand language, including such high-profile topics as the Americans with Disabilities Act, capital punishment, domestic violence, gay and lesbian rights, physician-assisted suicide and thousands more. | 148 BROWN V. BOARD OF EDUCATION OF TOPEKA KANSAS Douglas Corporation secure contracts to build aircraft in China. The liberal Committee for Economic Organizing complained that he was promoting companies not jobs. But scandals nearly sank Brown. In 1993 during Brown s first year as secretary of commerce a Vietnamese businessman alleged that Brown had accepted a 700 000 bribe from the government of Vietnam to remove a longstanding trade embargo. Brown denied the charge the federal bureau of investigation conducted a year-long probe and he was ultimately cleared. By late 1994 rumors spread in the press that he would resign to run Clinton s reelection campaign. in February 1995 new allegations emerged. . attorney general janet reno opened another criminal probe into Brown s personal finances. This time congressional Republicans accused him of violating disclosure requirements and evading taxes. Brown again denied any violation of law but Republican critics began calling for his dismissal as well as the elimination of the Department of Commerce itself which they called irrelevant and outdated. in May 1995 fourteen Republican senators told Attorney General Reno that fairness required that the probe be conducted outside of the Clinton administration. Reno agreed she requested the appointment of an independent counsel to examine Brown s finances. Particularly troubling was one odd-looking business deal Brown had earned nearly 500 000 from selling his interest in a firm in which he had never invested. Brown won high regard for his work in the law. He was the recipient of two American jurisprudence awards for outstanding achievement in jurisprudence and for outstanding scholastic achievement in poverty law. He served as a trustee of Middlebury College and as a board member of both the united Negro College Fund and the university of the District of Columbia. He was a fellow of the institute of Politics at the john f. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard university. On .
