The American Spectator : Justice Loses Its Stars and Stripes

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Washington Prowler

Justice Loses Its Stars and Stripes

By The Prowler on 7.16.10 @ 6:08AM

The Department of Justice goes one-world on us.

What's black and white and "red" all over? The Department of Justice's newly designed website. Gone are the standard red, white, and blue motifs, replaced by an all-black backdrop. And prominently placed on virtually every page of the site is a quote credited to a man who facilitated a greater role for socialists and communists at the U.N., and the global "workers rights movement."

The redesigned website was launched without fanfare, but was noticed internally by several career lawyers, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of political reprisals. "We were told that the media team and the senior leadership that signed off on the design thought that the patriotic shtick from the Ashcroft days was a bit much for an agency that isn't supposed to be political," says a DOJ lawyer, who inquired about the redesign. "It was a real effort not to laugh at that."

Prominent now on the site are links to "Justice.gov en Español" and the "The Recovery Act and the Department of Justice." But most jarring is the quote that is appears on virtually every page of the website. "The common law is the will of mankind issuing from the life of the people," which, some DOJ staff say, is tied to a man who ushered in the socialist and communist theories that now permeate the United Nations.

Another DOJ lawyer says, "It's taken from an inscription along one of the outer walls of the department ["The common law derives from the will of mankind, issuing from the life of the people, framed by mutual confidence, and sanctioned by the light of reason"], but no one is sure where the quote came from."

The quotes that ring the building were selected during the construction process back in the administration of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Some attorneys believed the quote is pulled or adapted from the writing of Sir William Blackstone, the 18th Century British jurist, who wrote the Commentaries on the Laws of England, which influenced not only British law, but also the American constitutional and legal system. But other Department of Justice employees say the quote originates from British lawyer, C. Wilfred Jenks, who back in the late 1930s and after World War II was a leading figure in the "international law" movement, which sought to impose a global, common law, and advocated for global workers rights. Jenks was a long-time member of the United Nation's International Labor Organization, and author of a number of globalist tracts, including a set of essays published back in 1958, entitled The Common Law of Mankind.

Most telling: Jenks, as director of the ILO is credited with putting in place the first Soviet senior member of the UN organization, and also with creating an environment that allowed the ILO to give "observer status" to the Palestinian Liberation Organization, and to issue anti-Israeli statements, which precipitated efforts by the U.S. Congress to withdraw U.S. membership from the ILO. The U.S. actually did withdraw in the mid-1970s due to the organization's leftist leanings.

"It was Jenks's efforts that helped make the ILO a tool of the socialist and communist movement," says one of the DOJ lawyers. "We used to joke about how fitting it was that this was Janet Reno's favorite quote to use in speeches, and now the Obama folks think it encapsulates out department's mission."

Suggestions to highlight quotes from the U.S. Constitution or Bill of Rights or quotes from the Founders, the Federalist Papers or prominent American jurists were quickly shot down by the Department of Justice's media and new media teams, according to DOJ sources familiar with the design process, and the White House communications shop was given input to the overall design as well.

topics:
Justice Department, C. Wilfred Jenks

Letter to the Editor View all comments (71) | Leave a comment

Deborah D| 7.16.10 @ 6:19AM

Oh, good grief. These people just truly make me ill. But, oh they love their country, don't they? Just don't keep any tradition or history around to honor it.

Reminds me of when the Taliban blew up the Buddha carvings on the mountains in Afghanistan years ago. Tradition? History? Just erase it.

loulou| 7.16.10 @ 10:59AM

Erasing (or demolishing) tradition, history and people is the Communist, Marxist-Leninist way. Try to find a copy of "The Commissar Vanishes". Chilling.

Appleby| 7.16.10 @ 6:28AM

As long as The PeePull care more about which celebrity is pregnant by the spouse of which other celebrity -- or which Bachelor gets The Rose -- things like this blow right on by the greater proletariat.

Brave New World -- Its Working ...

atmom| 7.17.10 @ 8:23PM

too true

Wilbur A. Rath| 8.21.10 @ 1:19PM

Appleby is correct. Unfortunately they have the right to vote!!!!

Gina| 9.2.10 @ 1:51PM

Go Appleby....lwt's quit wasting time on the STUPID stories about Paris Hilton & Lindsay Lohan. If you don't talk about them, they will go away. I bet no one knows about that the DOJ did to their website or who that quote came from. Let's get Glenn Beck on it!

Sebastian B.O. Buniontoe IV| 7.16.10 @ 6:29AM

This too will pass when we sweep these bums out of office.

Madder n Hell| 7.16.10 @ 10:20AM

Right on. Votem out and close the rat invested dens that supposedly educauted (ha) them. Like Harrvurrd. Got to eliminate the source too.

Stephanie| 7.16.10 @ 10:51AM

Hell Madder, you'd have to close ALL public institutions of higher learning! They are all bastions of progressivism/liberalism!

Hank| 9.1.10 @ 9:33PM

I do believe that should be "Institutes of Higher Conditioning"

Mike Niland| 7.16.10 @ 10:53AM

It's absolutely a priority to shut down the universities. Go after their wallets.

SocialistsNeverProsper| 7.16.10 @ 6:20PM

Why stop with Hahhhvuhd when it is Columbia that produced legions of neo-Communists like Cloward, Piven and King Narcissus of the Oval Office?

Columbia delenda est.

antidote| 7.17.10 @ 10:16PM

By all means lets close all universities. Advanced education is a scourge on mankind! The Bible teaches you everything you need to know.
Pathetic lot.

John II| 7.18.10 @ 9:56PM

Not ALL universities, Anti--just the treasonous ones. And just take them off the public trough; no need to close them outright.

Advanced education will survive on its own merits; as to indoctrination in political correctitude, let's just see if it can survive having its tax-supported lifeline snipped. Aren't you interested in social experimentation? Aren't you even curious to know whether the politicized English departments and the victim-studies programs can go it alone, without benefit of legalized pocket-picking? Think of it as a research experiment.

axbucxdu| 7.19.10 @ 12:11AM

And let's not stop at only the universities. Yup, while we're at it let's expand the experiment shall we, and see how well all these silly perpetual motion machines turn when their very public plug is pulled.

Progressives have been very clever to conceal their nonsense behind a monetary mirage. Eliminating the U.S.G.'s access to unlimited fiat money is sufficient for the system to purge itself, rendering politics over these minor choices unnecessary.

Estragon| 7.16.10 @ 7:20AM

Holder as AG should have tipped everyone off. He's never been anything but a political hack. The most remarkable thing is that his nomination wasn't greeted with universal laughter and ridicule until it was withdrawn.

Elections do matter, it seems.

The Clintidote| 7.16.10 @ 11:08PM

"Elections do matter, it seems."

They do. However, with a stupid, corrupt, statist, doddering old man as the "opposition" it's no wonder DingDing won.

I saw this coming years ago; the goppers are totally useless, yet dummies keep thinking they're the salvation.

We saw what they did the last time they were in power. Same old crap, to a slightly lesser degree.

gail| 7.17.10 @ 12:01PM

Same old crap, to a slightly lesser degree.
We need to keep our priorities straight. Getting rid of the people in power now, especially the Democrats and clearly turncoat Republicans, must come first. Rebuilding or replacing the GOP comes next. There will soon be no recognizable America to represent if we don't get rid of the wreckers ASAP.

atmom| 7.17.10 @ 8:26PM

agreed to an extent but what was the alternative? and what is the alternative now? the real stake holders apparently don't care enough to recruit a good candidate

martin j smith| 7.16.10 @ 8:00AM

Of course this administration is ideologically driven and the DOJ is no different in this regaqrd. what is necessary and is happening thru the immigration issues along with the issue ot handling Gitmo detainees "trials " is exposing the truth about this administration. This is one example of where a minority is ruling a majority against the majority's will.

Mimi| 7.18.10 @ 5:14PM

MARTIN: Holder is in ...BIG ... real trouble! He defended a white "Cracker Baby" killer want-to-be. The repeat of his musings is all over the T.V. and internet. This has to be addressed and FAST!!.......... we now have to worry about our childrens safety??? Because the Chief Law enforcer is in bed with the worse among us, some-one who wants to kill our ....Babies?? .....And says so on VIDEO. Holder has a number of days!

KyMouse| 7.16.10 @ 9:38AM

The older version of the DOJ website, which is available in the first paragraph of this article, shows the American flag five times, if I'm correct.

The new version, also linked, shows it only very small, a couple of times on the seal. And I'll bet that the O Team wants to change that seal.

Jon Carry| 7.16.10 @ 9:53AM

Notice the top four headlines at the newly designed black Department of Justice. Suing Arizona, cops shooting Blacks in New Orleans, Michelle Antionette Øbama and Eric Holder himself.

Stephanie| 7.16.10 @ 10:53AM

Anything on the black trash New Black Panthers? No? I didn't think so.

hardcard| 7.16.10 @ 10:08AM

two hundred and thirty years of history destroyed. elections do matter!!!!!!

Ignatz| 9.29.10 @ 11:15PM

The Department of Justice website has been around for 230 years?

What a pack of lunatics.

Petronius| 7.16.10 @ 10:40AM

Considering the AG's arrogance, why didn't they go all out and quote Anita Hill? "The Constitution does not matter. The truth is unimportant. All that counts is Who Controls the Court."

Oldefarte| 7.16.10 @ 11:50AM

Let's play a political game, okay? Ask all of your friends, relatives, work associates, fellow church members, neighbors,etc IF THEY VOTED FOR OBAMA ON 11/4/08???????????????????

ANENBRO| 7.16.10 @ 5:34PM

Many a fellow junior student & peer only in age IDIOT SAVANT-LESS Academician shouted his heralding inaugural as if Christ himself had returned.

Except for passing references to what a mess WUBYA made they are all now sheepishly mute.

Other than that, and is my habit, believe it or not, I cannot engage scarcely a soul that will rally much more than a dour scowl of response indicative of the guilt befitting one who dealt it but you weren't supposed to have smelt it.

Al Adab| 7.16.10 @ 11:50AM

"This is the way the world ends, not with a bang but a whimper."

AMENBRO| 7.16.10 @ 5:43PM

If you haven't noticed Adab not his MF.

I'm goin out with my GD boots, pockets filled with or empty of cartridges surrounded by casings spent , Irritated throat , & larynx paralyzed from charging my fellow patriots onwards towards victory.

Dogs proffer their hind parts to an enemy if they deem the battle unwinable, not ME.

Al Adab| 7.16.10 @ 6:03PM

Incrementalism is what allowed this statist/leftist drift to reach this point. The election is the final battle in the war of ideas. Failure to prevail at the ballot box this November leaves only the choice of a couple less than desireable options. That mine will be to stand with you and the others side by side should not be in doubt. Nevertheless, my posted quote above is all to true. Little bites have taken much of our independence and backbone over the years.

AMENBRO| 7.17.10 @ 4:44AM

I agree & respect your conviction

Chalkdust| 7.18.10 @ 11:22AM

In 3 1/2 months or 2 years or 4 years or for that matter forever from this date : 7/19/2010, remember how you feel at this moment. Pledge never vote for another politician who does not scream from the roof-tops that he/she will expend all their energies rolling back the damage the hounds of hell of this administration has caused to pax America.

We Americans, bless our giving heart, seem to care little that freedom and liberty hang from a tender thread when the root cellar is stocked full and unemployment is below 5%. Never forget that attacks on our basic freedoms can hide in what seemingly is portrayed as expanded freedoms. For instants; the recent decision by a three judge panel in NYC gave TV executives the right to use every explicative known to mankind, during prime time broadcasting. This may seem like freedom to some, but it actually coarsens America and belittles our call for freedom.

From the blood of patriots.

Latigo| 7.16.10 @ 12:59PM

The intent, and perhaps also of this Administration, that is subtly contained in the language of this new quote posted on the Justice website, is the most frightening of all. The quote implies that it is the will of mankind collectively that determines the law, not right vs. wrong or man's unalienable human and God-given right to freedom, as stated in our Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. The "will" of mankind can thus be easily manipulated by political strategies that are cleverly designed to undermine freedom and replace it with “suitable” mass population control designed by elite powers to redefine the "will of mankind" in their revolutionary self-interest. In other words, this new will of mankind, when powerful enough and manipulated correctly , will be able to trash the Constitution, discard the Declaration, and declare a new society with new law based on collectivism and not the individual and personal freedom.

darcy| 7.17.10 @ 4:40PM

Your last sentence, Latigo, reminds me of this quote from Bastiat:

"When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men living together in society, they create for themselves in the course of time a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it." -- French Economist, statesman and author Frederic Bastiast (1801-1850)

DaveT| 7.16.10 @ 2:41PM

Coming next are web site updates for Minitrue, Minipax, Miniplenty, and Miniluv?

reo| 7.16.10 @ 5:11PM

"http://is.gd/duNa5 http://is.gd/duMRs
Janet Reno
There is, on the wall of the 9th Street gate, a saying that I have come to rely on again and again. It says, "The common law derives from the will of mankind, issuing from the life of the people, framed by mutual confidence, and sanctioned by the light of reason."

Mimi| 7.18.10 @ 1:16PM

I see proof that this " Crew " is most certainly lawless... the common law [ie] ..health care reform did NOT derive from the will of the American people , was not issued from the life of the people but relegated by the master to others who gave us the minutia in countless pages... not read by most!.... those who are the most extreme-leftist, idiots and not sanctioned by any light of reason!!! Also,it was cramed along with other so called laws in open, preposterous lawless and unconscientious ways to purchase the vote to thwart the will of mankind in this nation. WOW , we are in real trouble ...... Our own paid Justice Debt. does not abide by their own creed!!!

Mimi| 7.18.10 @ 4:17PM

Oops!! mis-spelled... should read..Justice Dept.

WAKE UP| 7.17.10 @ 4:50AM

Jon Carry| 7.16.10 @ 9:53AM: "Notice the top four headlines at the newly designed black Department of Justice. Suing Arizona, cops shooting Blacks in New Orleans, Michelle Antionette Øbama and Eric Holder himself. "

Jon, here's a quote from a Nazi stormtrooper in 1933, only months after Hitler became Chancellor: "Everyone is arresting everyone else, avoiding the prescribed official channels. Everyone is threatening everyone else with protective custody. Everyone is threatening everyone else with Dachau. Every little street cleaner today feels he is responsible for matters which he has never understood".

Sounds familiar, doesn't it.

sure| 7.18.10 @ 4:58AM

Don't worry i am sure the black will be replace with a more year zero type theme soon.

free submit url| 7.18.10 @ 1:27PM

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Michael Neth| 7.18.10 @ 2:13PM

Why *should* Holder and his lackeys put quotations from the Constitution, Bill of Rights, and Federalist Papers on their revamped website? At least by not doing so, for once they're being honest: their one overweening goal is to subvert the precepts of the Constution and other founding documents. The only way to end this (with only the damage that will already have occurred by then) will come in November of 2012.

Mimi| 7.18.10 @ 4:39PM

Michael: I'm thinking lately it will be sooner, than 2012. What does the "new " entrance & meetings with Bill Clinton mean? I may be off.. but.... I'm seeing signs of change..Perhaps a few firings.... such as ...Holder.... Big sis and our friend who gave a few dribbles of H2O to the farmers in California... { Vote catcher scheme} and still hasn't got a clew on the oilspill and is the main reason for the present moratorium on drilling. These policies border on the ridiculous by ideas of idiots. .....And they have no HEART and this Salazar guy does not care...... about country or people. I hope they all GO! and soon!

Michael Neth| 7.18.10 @ 5:12PM

I hope you're right, Mimi. But even if Holder (say) gets axed, Dear Leader will install someone equally corrupt and arrogant. All these people have that weird, self-righteous light in their eyes, the light of the true believer willing to do anything to bend reality to their perspective. I keep thinking of Stephen Dedalus's words in Joyce's "Ulysses": "History is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake." That's how I've felt since The Greatest Human Ever took office.

Mimi| 7.18.10 @ 5:30PM

Heh Micheal: I hope not! Maybe Clintons up there talking up "Triangulation ". I won't, myself anyway, no matter what they conger up NOW....ever be able to forgive the Dem's for what they did and are doing to this country. NO not in 10 lifetimes!! will I FORGET!!

Richard Diamond| 7.18.10 @ 10:03PM

It is telling me that the Justice Dept. no longer represents the red, white, and blue that the world has always associated with America and now only represents itself.

UGGSSALE| 7.19.10 @ 9:56PM

Frank Provasek| 8.23.10 @ 6:49PM

Those ideas are as old as our nation. Those words are carved in to the Justice Department building. From 1935. Common law from the people, as in elected government and trials by a jury of your peers, and the right to appeal...as opposed to edicts handed down from a king.

Linda L Hill| 8.28.10 @ 4:23AM

I'm Sorry, but as soon as the House and Senate are taken back, Empeachment proceeding should start against Obama for the crimes he has committed against us, the American People.

Joe| 9.2.10 @ 10:46AM

Dark. Menacing. Foreboding. Be afraid people. Be very afraid.

Old Redneck| 9.4.10 @ 7:51AM

You people are not very observant or very smart.

The following websites DO NOT HAVE AN AMERICAN FLAG IN THEIR BANNER:

Defense
State
Treasury
Interior
HHS
Labor
Education
Transportation
Veterans Affairs
Homeland Security

I didn't bother to check any more departmental websites because, after checking those, it became clear that the rightwing blogosphere is batshit crazy.

Anne Lieberman| 9.9.10 @ 8:41AM

Does anyone have a screen capture of what the website looked like before the redesign?

Ignatz| 9.29.10 @ 11:12PM

And the Pledge of Allegiance was written by a socialist.

You people HUNT for things to get paranoid over.

The colors on a website? Who gives a crap - holy God.

What a pack of lunatics.

Peter L . Ruden| 3.7.11 @ 9:32AM

I was emailed a condensed version of this nonsense by a good friend that is mired in a Tea Party/Glenn Beck stupor. I see that he is not alone. What drivel. This is what passes for analysis and commentary amongst right-wingers? This is comedy.

Anthony O'Malley| 3.14.11 @ 2:26AM

The original Ashcroft design with stars and stripes actually violated the U.S. Flag Code (section 8g) that prohibits the depiction of the flag with writings or symbols on it. It's about time Ashcroft's disrespect for the flag has been corrected. I believe the quote is atributed to a Dr. Hartley Alexander (1879-1939) and not Jenks. But even if Jenks did repeat it, anyone with a passing knowledge of the development and origins of the common-law would appreciated the wisdom of the full inscription on the East wall of the Justice Building.

wholesale beads| 4.1.11 @ 3:46AM

nice

Mark| 10.6.11 @ 3:16PM

I can't believe this article is still on the site. This stupid story about the communist origins of the quote has been blown to bits by sites that actually check facts before ranting. E.g., http://www.politifact.com/trut.....epartmen/.

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