Today's Washington Post offers a damning report by Jerry Markon and Krissah Thompson about race-conscious enforcement of the law in Eric Holder's Justice Department.
The upshot? The "powers that be" in charge of the Department think civil rights laws are only to be used to protect minorities, not white people, even when whites' rights are being violated.
Here's one snippet:
Civil rights officials from the Bush administration have said that enforcement should be race-neutral. But some officials from the Obama administration, which took office vowing to reinvigorate civil rights enforcement, thought the agency should focus primarily on cases filed on behalf of minorities.
Civil rights officials from the Bush administration have said that enforcement should be race-neutral. But some officials from the Obama administration, which took office vowing to reinvigorate civil rights enforcement, thought the agency should focus primarily on cases filed on behalf of minorities.
"The Voting Rights Act was passed because people like Bull Connor were hitting people like John Lewis, not the other way around," said one Justice Department official not authorized to speak publicly. . ..
Ha! Look who's espousing "original intent" now. But wait; there's more:
"There are career people who feel strongly that it is not the voting section's job to protect white voters," the [Justice Department] lawyer said. "The environment is that you better toe the line of traditional civil rights ideas or you better keep quiet about it, because you will not advance, you will not receive awards and you will be ostracized."
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In other words, there are people in the Obama Justice Department who do not believe in the equal protection of the law as enshrined in our Constitution. The essence of that guarantee is that laws' protections apply equally to all citizens, regardless of race. It would be outrageous if government lawyers refused to enforce the law to protect African Americans or any other minority because of their minority status; it's outrageous if they refuse to do so on behalf of whites -- because they are white.
And it's just one more reason why we need a Congress that's willing to take a look at what seems like some pretty hard-core racialism in the Justice Department.
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