Morning Bell: Washington Post Confirms Politics Comes Before Justice at Obama DOJ

Conn Carroll / October 25, 2010

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 the New Black Panther Party and two of its members goes way beyond a slam dunk voter intimidation case.

The facts of the New Black Panther case are these: 1) On Election Day 2008, two members of the New Black Panther Party were filmed outside a polling place dressed in black berets, jackets, shirts, pants and boots; 2) one of the Panthers was brandishing a billy club; 3) witnesses testified that the Panthers intimidated voters and poll watchers; 4) after the Bush Justice Department filed suit, the Panthers failed to respond and on April 2, 2009, a court in Philadelphia entered a “default” against the defendants; 5) after President Obama was sworn in, his political appointees took great interest in the case; and 6) just days before the Justice Department was supposed to file for final judgment, the charges against three of the defendants were completely dismissed and the billy club wielder received a slap on the wrist.

The Washington Post story confirms all of these details and goes even further. The Post confirms the testimonies of former Department of Justice lawyer J. Christian Adams and current DOJ Christopher Coates that, since President Obama took power, there has been a marked hostility to race-neutral law enforcement at the Department of Justice. The Post reports: (more…)