Something is rotten at Barack Obama’s Justice Department. These
days, most of the criticism of the DOJ is aimed at the stubbornly
liberal Attorney General Eric Holder. But while Holder is trying
to decide which densely-populated metropolis to try Khalid Sheikh
Mohammed in, another wing of his department has been pursuing
alleged “hate crimes” and “discrimination” cases with a
vengeance.
The DOJ’s Civil Rights Division is, as Assistant Attorney General
for Civil Rights Thomas Perez put it, “open for business again.”
Perez has expressed shock at the lack of hate crimes prosecutions
under George W. Bush. He plans to increase the Civil Rights
Division’s tempo and will hire more than 100 new employees to
bolster its ranks.
Obama’s Justice Department is notoriously tin-eared, but you
still think they’d know to be cautious. Earlier in the year, the
Supreme Court delivered a harsh blow to hyperactive civil rights
lawyers in the Ricci v. DeStefano case. That ruling
called into question key tenets of civil rights law and almost
sent Sonia Sotomayor’s confirmation hearings into a tailspin. A
Quinnipiac poll found that Americans supported the firefighters
by a three-to-one margin.
That hasn’t fazed Perez, who said in a speech that Ricci wouldn’t
stop his lawyers from prosecuting other so-called “disparate
impact” cases. With precedent cast aside, there’s not much
standing in his way. Perez’s prosecutions have usually targeted
state and local police departments, sheriff’s offices, and voting
boards. These are stories for the local news, unlikely to ignite
a national controversy.
Perez has done a lot with little attention called to him. Just a
few of the cases the CRD has taken up:
• In New Jersey, a written test is administered for police
officers seeking to advance to the rank of sergeant. As in New
Haven, the test quizzes candidates on state and local law. The
Civil Rights Division filed a lawsuit against the New Jersey
Civil Service Commission because a greater percentage of whites
were passing than Hispanics or African-Americans.
• In Oklahoma, the Bryan County Sheriff’s Office evoked Perez’s
wrath because the Sheriff had been reassigning pregnant female
corrections officers to desk duty while they were pregnant. (It
boggles the mind, I know.) A consent decree was established and
employees of the Sheriff’s Office must now submit to mandatory
training on something called “pregnancy discrimination.”
• In Georgia, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 requires the state
to get permission from the Justice Department before they can
change state voting laws. A new law passed by the state would
require new voters to present proof of citizenship, including
driver’s license information and a Social Security Number, before
they can register. The Civil Rights Division refused to clear the
law because they think it would somehow discriminate against
minority voters. Georgia’s government became so aggravated, they
finally decided to sue the DOJ. “The State of Georgia will no
longer watch the Obama Justice Department play politics with our
election processes and protections,” said Georgia Secretary of
State Brian Kemp.
It begs the question: Is there any civil rights situation in
which Perez won’t stick his nose? Actually, yes — the
Black Panther case has been ignored for months.
Much of this has to do with who’s running the Civil Rights
Division. Perez is a lifelong civil rights lawyer whose specialty
is suing racist cops. He grew up in the Civil Rights Division
during the 1990s and went on to advise Ted Kennedy on civil
rights.
Perez’s crusades against employment tests are surprisingly legal.
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act forbids “disparate impact,”
which bans employment hurdles, such as police tests, that aren’t
intentionally discriminatory, but whose outcomes ultimately
exclude minorities. Unfortunately, the Supreme Court hasn’t
gotten around to jiving Title VII with the Constitution’s
guarantee of equal protection under the law.
Title VII is used sparingly in the hands of a wise lawyer. During
Bush’s presidency, disparate impact lawsuits dropped sharply, as
did hate crimes prosecutions. But Obama’s CRD is brandishing the
Civil Rights Act as a javelin while they charge at phantom racist
windmills across America. Listening to Perez rant about the legal
“weapons in our arsenal,” it almost feels like he’s on a crusade.
This is litigation at its worst.
At its very core, America was founded as a place where
individuals would advance based on their merit, not their
birthright or social status. After the racially charged tumults
of the 1960s, that ideal became threatened by progressives who
transformed anti-discrimination laws into racial preferences.
Perez is cut from that mold, though he’s 25 years too late. He
hollers about crusading against racism and hate while most of
America sits in relative racial harmony, governed by its first
black president. He’s waving the flag ready to storm the beaches
of Normandy, but it’s 2010.
And now Barack Obama has him in a senior position in our
Department of Justice.
