Robert L. Saloschin, a Justice Department lawyer who found an unconventional legal basis for the federal government to order the racial integration of interstate bus travel and bus terminals during the violence-wracked Freedom Rides of 1961, died Feb. 24 at his home in Bethesda. He was 95. <\/p>\n
The cause was myelodysplasia, a blood disorder, said his daughter, Mary Ann Hubbard. <\/p>\n
In a 23-year Justice Department career, Mr. Saloschin also was a top official advising federal agencies on compliance with the Freedom of Information Act, and he was one of the authors of the legislation that created Comsat, the Communications Satellite Act of 1962. <\/p>\n
In 1961, he recommended that desegregation of bus and terminal facilities be brought about by petition to the Interstate Commerce Commission, which many lawyers previously thought had authority only over economic matters. <\/p>\n
Early that year, groups of Freedom Riders, black and white, had boarded New Orleans-bound buses in Washington, intending to challenge racial segregation laws and customs throughout the South. There were minor incidents and some arrests from Virginia through Georgia. <\/p>\n
But in Alabama the riders were met by Ku Klux Klan-led mobs armed with crowbars, pitchforks and clubs. A bus was burned near Anniston, Ala., and riders were attacked and beaten. Photographs and video tapes of the violence were broadcast around the world, much to the embarrassment of the new president, John F. Kennedy, and his brother, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, whose pleas for a cooling off period went unheeded. <\/p>\n
It was at that point, then-Deputy Attorney General Nicholas deB. Katzenbach wrote in his 2008 memoir Some of It Was Fun, that Mr. Saloschin suggested a petition to the Interstate Commerce Commission. Mr. Saloschin had years of experience with federal agencies, Katzenbach wrote, and he knew whereof he spoke. <\/p>\n
The two men met with the general counsel of the ICC, who doubted that the commission had the authority to issue any such order. <\/p>\n
But Saloschin had the bit in his teeth, Katzenbach wrote, quoting him as having said, Well, the Attorney General can formally and publicly petition the Commission to desegregate all buses and terminals if he wants to. <\/p>\n
Continued Katzenbach, This seemed a dramatic and somewhat original way of supporting the Freedom Riders, and Bobby [Kennedy] liked it. So did the president. <\/p>\n
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