First the Obama Justice Department defended the Defense of Marriage Act (“DOMA,” which defines marriage as between a man and a woman for the purposes of federal law, and clarifies that no state has to recognize a homosexual marriage from another state) in federal lawsuits. Well actually, it did such a bad job of defending the lawsuits that even supporters of gay marriage acknowledged that the Justice Department’s non-defense of DOMA bordered on collusive litigation, concluding that the “DOJ’s faint-hearted advocacy is no way to run a legal system.” It could …
Attorney General Eric Holder came under fire today from his predecessor at the Justice Department for pursuing criminal action against CIA employees involved in the enhanced interrogation of terrorists. Following a speech at The Heritage Foundation, former Attorney General Michael Mukasey called Holder’s handling of matter “absolutely outrageous.” He said the cases involving CIA employees were settled by career prosecutors who determined the prosecutions should not go forward. “The current attorney general, when he took office, without reading the memos, directed that those investigations be reopened,” Mukasey said. “I think …
Last year, Attorney General Eric Holder told the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs that the Obama administration’s “commitment to Equal Protection – and to full participation in our nation’s elections – will not waiver. Never.” But Friday, The Washington Post published a story that completely undercuts that claim. The story itself breaks little new ground. Followers of this blog have already read all the details in the story. But the Post story does add confirmation from three Justice Department lawyers that the dismissal of charges against …
Stunning new developments in the New Black Panther Party (NBPP) voter-intimidation scandal indicate that high-level Justice Department officials have been misleading the public and Congress. Indeed, they may also have committed perjury before the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. Judicial Watch recently filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit requesting documents related to the case, and today it released a log produced by the Justice Department of e-mail communications and other documents that Justice is withholding from disclosure on purported privilege grounds. The log details numerous discussions and legal …
The Washington Times lead editorial yesterday was about the Justice Department enabling voter fraud — just in time for the November elections. This is due to the Department’s refusal to enforce the part of Section 8 of the National Voter Registration Act that requires states to remove ineligible voters from their registration rolls — people who have died or moved away, and felons who have not yet had their voting rights restored. The longer such names remain on a registration list, the greater the chances that a fraudulent vote will …
Eric Holder’s Justice Department really seems to believe that its primary responsibility is to help aliens who violate federal law as opposed to tax-paying citizens of the United States. What else can one say about the latest action filed by the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division against Arizona community colleges claiming they violated federal law when they asked noncitizens applying for jobs to produce their green cards? According to news reports, the complaint was filed with the Executive Office for Immigration Review, an administrative office within the Justice Department that …
The latest Rasmussen poll on voter ID is sure to frustrate liberal advocacy organizations like the NAACP and the League of Women Voters that oppose commonsense proposals to ensure the integrity of our election process. They have been waging a losing litigation battle against states to try to prevent them from implementing photo ID requirements. Rasmussen reports that an overwhelming majority of likely voters (82 percent) believe all voters should show photo ID before they are allowed to vote (that includes a majority in every demographic group). Only 14 percent …
As the scandal over the dismissal of the New Black Panther Party (NBPP) voter intimidation case percolates in the media, letters have been flying through the corridors of power. On July 22, Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) sent a letter to President Obama demanding that he appoint a special counsel to look into the Justice Department’s handling of the case. On July 28, Gerald Reynolds — chairman of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights — sent Attorney General Eric Holder another letter once again demanding the testimony of Christopher Coates, who …
Imagine arriving at your neighborhood polling place on Election Day and seeing two men guarding the entrance, dressed in paramilitary uniforms, wielding a deadly billy club, shouting racial epithets and menacing voters. Would you walk through the door? Now imagine political appointees in the Department of Justice (DOJ) refusing to pursue the case, the U.S. Attorney General stonewalling and refusing to enforce lawful subpoenas in the face of questions about that decision, and the mainstream media remaining silent on the story for a year. This isn’t a case of pure …
At last! It took a year, but The Washington Post and The New York Times have finally done (grudging) stories about the Justice Department’s scandalous dismissal of the voter-intimidation case against the New Black Panther Party. Indeed, even The Los Angeles Times editorialized about the testimony of former career lawyer Christian Adams before the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, going so far as to admit that the Department’s handling of this case “raises larger questions,” although they then claim that “so far the case hasn’t been made” that this was …
