Former AG Mukasey Hits Obama Justice Department Voting Section

Former Attorney General Michael Mukasey delivered a sharp criticism of the Obama Justice Department, particularly the DOJ Voting Section in a speech republished in Hillsdale College’s Imprimis. In a broadside aimed at the Obama-era DOJ, Mukasey hits the Department’s biased and partisan law enforcement policies.

Mukasey’s speech should be required reading for every Presidential campaign.

Mukasey revisits the dismissal of the voter intimidation case against the New Black Panther Party by Eric Holder and other political appointees shortly after the 2009 inauguration:

During the 2008 election, two members of the New Black Panther Party showed up at a polling place in Philadelphia dressed in black battle fatigues . . . In the waning days of the Bush administration, the DOJ’s Voting Section filed a lawsuit and won a default judgment. But in the spring of 2009, after the Obama administration took over, those handling the case were directed to drop it. The only penalty left in place was a limited injunction that barred the person with the nightstick from repeating that conduct for a period of time in Philadelphia. And when the Office of Professional Responsibility looked into the matter, their finding criticized the bringing of the case more than the dropping of it.

As one “handling the case,” the benefit of hindsight has revealed the New Black Panther dismissal as a sign of things to come. By 2015, we’ve grown used to outcome-driven law enforcement from the Justice Department. Laws are mere suggestions, not commands to this administration. If the Obama administration disagrees with a law, they simply refuse to enforce it.

In the New Black Panther case, the incoming Obama administration found it reprehensible that the civil rights laws would be used to protect anyone other than Democrat party constituencies. While the Office of Professional Responsibility behaved as General Mukasey described, the Justice Department Inspector General issued a report that documented the pervasive hostility inside the Voting Section to equal enforcement of the law to protect all Americans.

Simply, if the victims of civil rights violations are white, they don’t receive protection. This outcome is no accident. It is a result of beliefs held by civil servants working inside the Justice Department.

If a Republican wins the Presidency, he or she would be well advised to listen to General Mukasey and implement fundamental changes to the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, particularly the Voting Section. Step One may well be remedial training on what the Rule of Law means. (PJ Media coverage of the New Black Panther dismissal can be found here, here and here.)