Free Republic

Attorney General Eric Holder finally got fed up with claims that the Justice Department went easy in a voting rights case against members of the Black Panther Party because they are African American. Holder's frustration became evident during a House Appropriations hearing when Rep. John Culbertson (R-Texas) accused the Justice Department of failing to cooperate with a Civil Rights Commission investigation into the handling of the 2008 incident in which Black Panthers in intimidating outfits and wielding clubs stood outside a polling place in Philadelphia. Holder seemed to take personal offense at a comment Culbertson read in which a Democratic...

The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, frustrated by the Justice Department's failure to explain the dismissal of charges against New Black Panther Party members who disrupted a Philadelphia polling place during last year's elections, has subpoenaed the department demanding records showing how the case was handled. David P. Blackwood, the commission's general counsel, said Tuesday in a letter to the Justice Department that efforts since June to obtain an explanation had proceeded "without any success" and the "dearth of cooperation" had prompted the commission to issue subpoenas. "We are both mindful of the sensitivity of the subject matter involved and...