Something is wrong with a Justice Department that treats its own attorneys worse than it treats civil-rights violators those attorneys would prosecute. On Friday, after evasive testimony by Justice official Thomas E. Perez to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, department attorney J. Christian Adams resigned in obvious disgust at the deep-sixing of a voter intimidation case against members of the New Black Panther Party. Published May 20, 2010
Let's avoid all the mealy-mouthed euphemisms: In the now-infamous New Black Panther Party voter intimidation case, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr.'s Justice Department stands accused of being dishonest, racist, political hacks. The department's responses to those charges have been so weak that they may as well have pleaded nolo contendere. A hearing today by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights provides the department one more chance to adequately explain itself. Right now, no adequate explanation seems to exist. Published May 14, 2010
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On the first Tuesday in November, two uniformed men arrived at a voting place and took up positions by the entry doors. In the hours that followed, they harassed voters and election officials, hurled racial epithets and physically blocked persons of other races who sought to cast their votes for president of the United States. One of the men brandished a nightstick. Published April 22, 2010
In the matter of a voter-intimidation case against the New Black Panther Party, it's long past time for Democrats on the House and Senate Judiciary committees to start protecting the institutional powers of Congress and of independent agencies. Published April 9, 2010
Give credit for honorable persistence to Northern Virginia's veteran Republican congressman, Frank Wolf, and to Texas Republican Rep. Lamar Smith. For good reason, they refuse to let the Justice Department bury questions about a voter-intimidation case against the New Black Panther Party. Published March 8, 2010
The Obama administration's controversial abandonment of a voter-intimidation case against members of the New Black Panther Party is bordering on sinister. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. should appoint a thoroughly independent special counsel to look into the Black Panther case immediately. Published February 11, 2010
In their bid to protect President Obama's liberal political appointees at the Justice Department, congressional Democrats are surrendering their responsibility to keep a presidential administration honest. Published February 9, 2010
Racial cowardice, thy name is Eric Holder. For those who don't remember, Attorney General H. Holder Jr. had the gall last February to claim that Americans form "a nation of cowards" with regard to racial issues. Saying that this nation must examine its "racial soul" and that "we, average Americans, simply do not talk enough with each other about race," Mr. Holder explicitly vowed to "have frank conversations about the racial matters that continue to divide us." In that same context, he also vowed repeatedly last year to "restore" the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division to a supposedly renewed focus on protecting minority rights. Published January 15, 2010
The heat is rising against the Justice Department's mishandling of the voter intimidation case against the New Black Panther Party and three of its members. The last thing Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. needed was for the party's national chieftain to resurface in Mr. Holder's defense, but that's exactly what Malik Zulu Shabazz, the party chairman, did on Dec. 4. It says a lot about the Obama Justice Department that it is being promoted by a Black Panther. Published December 11, 2009
Could the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights actually subpoena U.S. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr.? Published November 4, 2009
A serious clash may be looming between the Department of Justice and the U.S. Civil Rights Commission about the department's dismissal of a voter-intimidation case against agents of the New Black Panther Party. The commission -- not Justice -- is on the side of the just. Published September 16, 2009
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Imagine if Ku Klux Klan members had stood menacingly in military uniforms, with nightsticks, in front of a polling place. Add to it that they had hurled racial threats and insults at voters who tried to enter. Published May 29, 2009
Illustration by Dana Summers of the Tribune Media Services
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