Unequal Protection Under the Law

Obama's Opaque Justice Department
By Michael P. Tremoglie
Tremoglie's Tea Time Blog

President Barack Hussein Obama promised a transparent government. Thus far, he has delivered an opaque one. Eric Holder's Department of Justice (DOJ) has led the way in this obscurity.

According to Congressman Frank Wolf (R.-Va.), Holder is “stonewalling” his efforts to learn why a voter intimidation case was mysteriously dropped after DOJ already won a civil suit they already filed.

This case involves alleged voter intimidation by members of the New Black Panther Party (NBPP) in Philadelphia during the 2008 presidential election. DOJ had already won the lawsuit filed while President Bush was still in office. Yet, mysteriously, inexplicably, the Obama DOJ dropped the case against two of the three NBPP members and the New Black Panther Party.

What bewilders many is the blatant double standard in the application of civil rights laws by DOJ. Some sources have alleged that there are those in the DOJ Civil Rights Division who do not believe in racial neutrality in enforcing civil rights laws. They feel white racism is more egregious than black racism. So while they will pursue cases involving whites, they will not against African-Americans.

Evidence of this exists by recent actions of the DOJ. Last week it monitored an election in Texas for violating minority language requirements and filed suit against a country club for alleged racial discrimination. Yet, this same DOJ refused to proceed with a voter intimidation case against African-Americans.

What is even more disconcerting is that Holder has done everything he could to avoid supplying elected officials and the US Civil Rights Commission they requested. He has consistently refused to furnish Wolf and Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Tx), both duly elected representatives of the people, with the information they legally seek regarding his decision for the dismissal. He has also instructed his staff to ignore lawful subpoenas from the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, which is also investigating this case.

This is very reminiscent of the stonewalling done by the Clinton administration during the Lewinsky investigation. This, however, is much more dire than a President of the United States committing perjury - as serious as that was.

The obfuscation committed by his Attorney General Eric Holder in this case is the most deleterious of all of those committed by the Obama administration. It is more important than not informing the public who visited the White House or who Mr. Obama consulted about banking reform.

It is because without being able to vote - nothing else really matters.

Almost one hundred fifty years ago, President Grant suspended the right of habeas corpus in South Carolina in 1871. He did so to combat the Ku Klux Klan's terrorism, a terrorism that prevented blacks form voting.

How things have changed.

Today the president gives terrorists lawyers instead of suspending habeas corpus and protects violations of the right of whites to vote .