- Table of Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Foreword
- Introduction
- I. Voting Rights
- II. Education
- III. Employment Discrimination
- IV.Fair Housing
- V. Public Accommodations
- VI. Policing the Police and Prosecuting the Klan
- Recommendations
- A. De-Politicize the Civil Rights Division
- B. Promote Access to Voting
- C. Enforce Fair Housing Laws
- D. Ensure Compliance with the Americans with Disability Act (ADA)
- E. Combat Employment Discrimination
- F. Promote and Maintain Integrated, High Quality Schools
- G. Prosecute Police Misconduct and Hate Crimes
- Conclusion
De-Politicize the Civil Rights Division
Perhaps the most troubling aspect of the change in the Division in recent years is the extent to which politics has driven its decision making. Changes in Administration have often brought changes in priorities within the Division; but these changes have never before challenged so directly the core functions of the Division, nor has there ever been such a concerted effort to structurally alter the Division through personnel changes at every level.
The Division's record on every score has undermined effective enforcement of our nation's civil rights laws. It is the personnel changes to career staff, however, that are in many ways most disturbing - for it is the staff that builds trust with communities, develops the cases, and negotiates effective remedies. Career staff has always been the soul of the Division, and it is under attack.
The blueprint for this attack appeared in a National Review article in 2002. The article, "Fort Liberalism: Can Justice's civil rights division be Bushified," 63 argues that previous Republican administrations did not succeed in stopping the Civil Rights Division from engaging in aggressive civil rights enforcement because of the "entrenched" career staff. The article proposed that "the administration should permanently replace those [section chiefs] it believes it can't trust," and further, that "Republican political appointees should seize control of the hiring process" rather than leave it to career civil servants - a radical change in policy. It appears that those running the Division got the message.
To date, four career section chiefs and two deputy chiefs have been forced out of their jobs, including the long-serving veteran who was responsible for overseeing enforcement of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act. The criteria for hiring career attorneys have become their political backgrounds instead of their experience in civil rights. Longtime career attorneys have left the Division in large numbers. The amount of expertise in civil rights enforcement that has been driven out of the Division will be difficult to recapture.
The Civil Rights Division must restore its reputation as the place for the very best and brightest lawyers who are committed to equal opportunity and equal justice. It is not a question of finding lawyers of a particular ideology. Rather, it is a recommitment to hiring staff who share the Division's commitment to the enforcement of federal civil rights laws. That is not politics; it is civil rights enforcement.
63. Miller, J. "Fort Liberalism: Can Justice's civil rights division be Bushified?" National Review, Vol. 6, May 2002.
