New Black Panther Party: Will Justice Department Investigate Julie Fernandes?

Conn Carroll / July 09, 2010

On May 14th, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights held a hearing to investigate the Justice Department’s decision to completely drop charges against the New Black Panther Party and two of its members for alleged voter intimidation in violation of the 1964 Voting Rights Act.  The remaining defendant who wielded a billyclub at the polls on election day 2008 got a proverbial wink and a slap on the wrist that he shouldn’t do it again …at least not in the City of Philadelphia … for a few more years. The crux of the Commission’s investigation centers on why the Obama administration decided to drop and reduce the charges after the Bush administration had already won a default judgment against the defendants. During the hearing, Department of Justice Civil Rights Division Assistant Attorney General Thomas E. Perez and Commissioner Todd Gaziano (who is also a colleague at Heritage) had the following exchange:

COMMISSIONER GAZIANO: If someone came to you and said that someone — someone in your Division, … a supervising attorney or a political appointee–made the statement that the voting rights laws should never be enforced against blacks or other racial minorities, you would investigate that report, wouldn’t you?
ASST. ATTY. GEN. PEREZ: I would take a look at the person who made the statement. I would take a look at the statement. And we would have a conversation about it.
COMMISSIONER GAZIANO: You would want to interview the people who were supposedly present when that statement was made, wouldn’t you?
ASST. ATTY. GEN. PEREZ: Yes, sir. (more…)