Free Republic

The ruling against the new Texas voting requirements law by U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder comes as no surprise to any who have been following the behavior of the Department of Justice's top official. A Monday (3/12/2012) report from The Washington Post, "DoJ Bars Texas Voter ID Law," is thoroughly consistent with a similar decree issued by the Department of Justice against a state law in South Carolina. In both states, their respective legislatures and governors had passed laws which required voters to present a state-recognized picture voter identification card in advance of voting. The card could be in the...

(Reuters) - The Obama administration on Monday blocked a new Texas law requiring voters to show photo identification before they can cast a ballot out of concerns it could harm some Hispanic voters who lack such identification. The state law approved in May 2011 required voters to show government-issued photo identification, which could include a driver's license, a military identification card, a birth certificate with a photo, a current U.S. passport, or a concealed handgun permit. The Justice Department said that data from Texas showed that almost 11 percent of Hispanic voters, just over 300,000, did not have a driver's...

In Eric Holder’s world, the need for racial preferences will never end. Later this year, the Supreme Court will review the constitutionality of the use of racial preferences in college admissions in the case of Fisher v. University of Texas. The battle lines will once again be drawn over the meaning of the equal-protection provisions of the Constitution. So it’s noteworthy that Attorney General Eric Holder has just made it clear he’s never bumped into a racial preference he didn’t like, and that he sees no time limit on such policies. Last month, in an appearance at Columbia University, his...

A former Justice Department attorney who blew the whistle on his department's policies is now questioning the promotion of a former defense attorney for an American terrorist to the No. 3 spot at the Justice Department -- specifically charged with crafting U.S. policy on Guantanamo detainees. J. Christian Adams, once an elections lawyer who accused the Justice Department of racial bias in its decision to not prosecute a voter intimidation case involving the New Black Panther Party, said Tony West's promotion from assistant attorney general for the Civil Division to acting associate attorney general is one more step toward letting...

There seems to be a pattern emerging in the Holder Justice Department: DOJ employees committing crimes and very little seems to happen to them. I’m not just talking about the questionable testimony under oath of Attorney General Eric Holder or Assistant Attorney General Tom Perez. I’m talking about theft, graft, child porn, bribery, and perjury. The fact that very little ever seems to happen to DOJ officials who purportedly commit the crimes tells you a great deal about the leadership of the Obama DOJ. Matthew Boyle at the Daily Caller has this explosive story on DOJ officials taking bribes...

The Department of Justice (DOJ) says an investigation by the Medicare Strike Force involving the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the FBI and the Louisiana State Attorney General's Office, resulted in two Baton Rouge residents pleading guilty for their role in a $21 million Medicare fraud plot. Henry Jones, the owner of four durable medical equipment (DME) companies, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge James J. Brady in the Middle District of Louisiana ...

Documents obtained by CBS News show that the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) discussed using their covert operation "Fast and Furious" to argue for controversial new rules about gun sales. PICTURES: ATF "Gunwalking" scandal timeline In Fast and Furious, ATF secretly encouraged gun dealers to sell to suspected traffickers for Mexican drug cartels to go after the "big fish." But ATF whistleblowers told CBS News and Congress it was a dangerous practice called "gunwalking," and it put thousands of weapons on the street. Many were used in violent crimes in Mexico. Two were found at the murder...

Department of Justice Challenges South Carolina's Immigration Law: Complaint Cites Conflict with Federal Enforcement of Immigration Laws WASHINGTON – The Department of Justice challenged South Carolina’s recently passed immigration law, Act No. 69, in federal court today. In a complaint, filed in the District of South Carolina, the department states that certain provisions of Act No. 69, as enacted by the state on June 27, 2011, are unconstitutional and interfere with the federal government’s authority to set and enforce immigration policy, explaining that “the Constitution and federal law do not permit the development of a patchwork of state and local...

We had to know: What sort of muffin could we bake if we spent $16 a pop? How good is a $16 muffin? Find out for yourself Last week's news that the government supposedly paid $16 apiece for breakfast muffins at a Justice Department conference set off critics of government spending. Hilton Worldwide, the hotel company that hosted the 2009 confab in Washington, disputes the accuracy of the claim in a report by the Justice Department's inspector general. The hotel called it an accounting thing, explaining that the price included various drinks and gratuity charges, in addition to the muffins....

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) subpoenaed Attorney General Eric Holder on Wednesday for documents related to the Fast and Furious gun-tracking operation. Issa, the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, contends Holder knew more about the botched operation than he has told Congress. His subpoenas are directed to Holder and other senior officials at the Department of Justice (DOJ). “Top Justice Department officials, including Attorney General Holder, know more about Operation Fast and Furious than they have publicly acknowledged,” Issa said in a statement announcing the subpoenas. “The documents this subpoena demands will provide answers to questions that...

An investigation into the Justice Department’s “Fast and Furious” gunrunning probe, which allowed hundreds of weapons to be illegally “walked” into Mexico, is not the first time Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr.’s truthfulness has been challenged by members of Congress. In 2001, the House Government Reform Committee questioned the accuracy of Mr. Holder’s depiction of what he did as deputy attorney general in the last-minute pardon by President Clinton of fugitive financier Marc Rich, whose former wife, Denise Rich, had donated $1.3 million to Democrats. Two years earlier, Mr. Holder came under fire for refusing to tell a Senate...

Among those who have been disappointed by President Barack Obama, none is likely to end up so painfully disappointed as those who saw his election as being, in itself and in its consequences, a movement toward a "post-racial society." Like so many other expectations that so many people projected onto this little-known man who suddenly burst onto the political scene, the expectation of movement toward a post-racial society had no speck of hard evidence behind it — and all too many ignored indications of the very opposite, including his two decades of association with the egregious Reverend Jeremiah Wright....

by John HillStand With ArizonaFederal District Judge Sharon Lovelace Blackburn again refused to halt Alabama's tough new immigration enforcement law, pending appeal - this time turning back an "emergency" request by the U.S. Department of Justice and left-wing non-profits who advocate for illegal aliens. She upheld provisions which authorized police to detain people suspected of being in the country illegally if they cannot produce proper documentation when stopped for any reason, among other provisions. Blackburn said...that the law's challengers, including President Barack Obama's administration and civil rights and immigrant advocacy groups, had not shown they were likely to prevail in...

What’s happened up until now, and what internal leaks say about what’s coming. Hint: jobs may now be at stake. (This is the twelfth of a series of articles about the Justice Department's hiring practices since President Obama took office. Read partsone,two,three,four,five,six,seven,eight,nine,ten, and eleven.) 113 and Oh. Following the Justice Department’s long-delayed compliance with a Freedom of Information Act request, PJMedia recently published content from the resumes of each career attorney hired to the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division under Attorney General Eric Holder. The articles were written by two former Civil Rights Division attorneys — J. Christian Adams and...

The Department of Justice is now prosecuting a 79-year-old grandfather. The reason: Richard Retta walks alongside women on the sidewalk outside a Planned Parenthood abortion facility and offers women hope that they can carry their babies to term. “They go in and they’re kind of sullen in what they’re doing, and I’m sure there’s a lot of sorrow there,” Retta says in a short video by Pro-Life Unity. “But when they change their mind, most of the times they’re smiling, they’re happy. And they’re willing to talk to us,” he says. This is the first time, in over a decade...

Goldman Sachs Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein has hired Reid Weingarten, a high-profile Washington defense attorney whose past clients include a former Enron accounting officer, according to a government source familiar with the matter. Blankfein, 56, is in his sixth year at the helm of the largest U.S. investment bank, which has spent two years dodging accusations of conflicts of interest and fraud. The move to retain Weingarten comes as investigations of Goldman and its role in the 2007-2009 financial crisis continue. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission scored a $550 million settlement against the bank in a fraud lawsuit in...

For those political pundits still scratching their heads over Michele Bachmann's victory in last weekend's Iowa straw poll, here's a piece of advice. You owe it to yourself to get out a little. Because if you get beyond the Beltway portrayals of the Tea Party -- such as Newsweek's ridiculous cover story on Bachmann -- you'd find the Minnesota congresswoman on the vanguard of a growing angst in middle America all but invisible to many of the cultural elite who cover politics. It is the angst of a Nixonian silent majority who now fail to recognize the nation in which...

All five new hires to the Justice Department's immigration office have far-left resumes — which were only released following a PJM lawsuit. (This is the third in a series of articles about the Justice Department's hiring practices since President Obama took office. Read parts one and two.)   Earlier this week, PJM commenced a series of articles highlighting the army of new attorneys hired for the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division by the Obama administration. PJM based its reporting on resumes that were finally turned over following a lengthy Freedom of Information Act battle with the Department.The intent of...

America should be appalled at the overwhelmingly politicized backgrounds of Eric Holder's hires in the Department of Justice Voting Section. (This is the second in a series of articles about the Civil Rights Division’s hiring practices since President Obama took office. Read the first article here.)   Eric Holder’s Justice Department wields enormous power over the American political landscape heading into the 2012 elections. Under the Voting Rights Act, sixteen states must submit any election law change to the Justice Department for approval. The law also gives the states the right to go to federal court for approval instead.States need...

The U.S. Justice Department is preparing subpoenas as part of preliminary investigations into News Corp. relating to alleged foreign bribery and alleged hacking of voicemail of Sept. 11 victims, according to a government official. The issuance of such subpoenas, which would broadly seek relevant information from the company, requires approval by senior Justice Department leadership, which hasn't yet happened, the person said. The issuance of subpoenas would represent an escalation of scrutiny on the New York-based media company