Free Republic

Panther-case scofflaw merits no cabinet post.If President Obama thinks he can get away with appointing an obvious prevaricator to be Secretary of Labor – and a radical, race-baiting one at that – he has lost all touch with reality. Even a group as confused and fractious as the caucus of Senate Republicans is sure to find the collective backbone to block the (expected) appointment of Thomas Perez. As I described in detail last August, Perez is one of the most loathsome figures in the thoroughly loathsome political ranks of Obama’s Justice Department. He has led the administration’s racial scaremongering against...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Two people familiar with the process say President Obama is close to naming Thomas E. Perez, a civil rights official in the Justice Department, as his choice to head the Department of Labor. His nomination could come as early as Monday, the people familiar with the process said Saturday. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the official announcement has not yet been made.

A federal court has ruled that South Carolina was the prevailing party in the unnecessary Voter ID litigation, and therefore the Justice Department is liable for paying the state’s costs. South Carolina spent $3,500,000 to obtain federal court approval of the state’s Voter ID law as non-discriminatory under the Voting Rights Act. The lawsuit was made necessary only because of the political and ideological radicalism of Assistant Attorney General Tom Perez and his deputy Matthew Colangelo. AAG Tom Perez PJ Media had this exclusive report detailing that career Voting Section employees, including Voting Section Chief Chris Herren, recommended that the...

Full title: Watchdog Group Raises Questions About Veracity of Holder Testimony on New Black Panther Party Scandal Court Ruling Puts New Focus On Voter Intimidation Scandal (Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch today raised questions today about the testimony of Attorney General Eric Holder in the wake of a federal court ruling that cast doubt on the accuracy of sworn testimony provided by Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Thomas Perez regarding the Department of Justice (DOJ) decision to abandon its voter intimidation lawsuit against the New Black Panther Party for Self Defense (NBPP). Judicial Watch uncovered information that top political...

Like many states concerned over election integrity, Pennsylvania passed a common-sense election reform: voter ID. As a result, it has been targeted in a lawsuit by the ACLU and threatened with litigation by the politically driven Eric Holder Justice Department. The ACLU lawsuit is unfounded, and the DOJ actions are an abuse of its legal authority as outlined in a previous post by PJ Media Legal Editor Christian Adams. The Pennsylvania law is not even as restrictive as Indiana’s voter ID, which was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2008. It has several exemptions that make it impossible for...

President Barack Obama’s top civil rights official repeatedly declined to support religious free speech during a July 27 congressional hearing, despite repeated questioning from Arizona Republican Rep. Trent Franks, who chairs the House’s constitution subcommittee. Tom Perez, the progressive who runs the Justice Department’s civil rights office, refused to answer the questions posed by Franks. “Will you tell us… that this administration’s Department of Justice will never entertain or advance a proposal that criminalizes speech against any religion?” Frank asked four times. Perez refused to answer, saying “it is a hard question, in the sense that when you make threats...

In an interview on CNN in advance talks between Iran and Western countries on Tehran's nuclear program, President Shimon Peres said that “time is running out” for Iran. You cannot provoke the world, assuming the world is made of fools only," Peres told the network. The talks got underway in Moscow Monday, after several inconclusive sessions over the past several months in Baghdad and Istanbul. The talks, with the U.S., Britain, China, Russia, France and Germany on one side of the table and Iran on the other, were “not going well,” an Iranian source quoted by European news agencies said...

by John HillStand With Arizona “They caught the wrong Sheriff on this matter.”Those seven words should have sent the message loud and clear to the Obama administration that they are in for a tough, and potentially embarrassing fight against "America's Toughest Sheriff" Joe Arpaio. Arpaio, who has become the nation's most prominent symbol in the fight against illegal immigration, appeared on the Mike Broomhead show on KFYI in his first interview since being officially served with a suit by the Obama administration’s Justice Department. Click below for full interview... Arpaio was, predictably, entirely un-intimidated, condescendingly remarking that “it’s a political...

Washington, DC – Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid issued the following statement after the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division announced it will file a lawsuit against Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio for civil rights violations and racial profiling. The Department of Justice found reasonable cause to believe that Arpaio’s office has engaged in a pattern or practice of constitutional rights violations, including obvious discrimination against Latino residents, unlawful retaliation against critics and discriminating against Hispanic inmates in county jails.“I commend the Obama Administration and Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez for their decision to file a lawsuit against Arizona Sheriff Joe...

Federal authorities say they intend to file a lawsuit against Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio and his department over allegations of civil rights violations.

by John HillStand With Arizona He's known as "America's Toughest Sheriff". But we think he should be called "America's Jobs Sheriff". Because every time Sheriff Joe Arpaio conducts a raid, he frees up jobs for legal American workers. Thursday was no exception, as the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office served search warrants at a Phoenix-based vitamin company and arrested 31 illegal aliens working there. Based on a tip, deputies conducted a 5-month investigation of 21st Century Healthcare in Tempe. Deputies were looking for 34 employees at the vitamin warehouse presumed to have used stolen identification to gain employment with the company....

SAN DIEGO -- Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez may be nowhere more popular than at a labor caucus meeting at a Democratic convention, and so it was that he received a standing ovation here this afternoon and tried out a one-liner on the crowd. "This year you've seen Mitt Romney and others talk about the fact that corporations are people," the former labor organizer said. "I won't believe corporations are people until Texas executes one of them."

SHERIFF ARPAIO MEETS TODAY’S D.O.J. DEADLINE PROMISES TO CONTINUE FULL COOPERATION WITH INVESTIGATION BUT WILL NOT COWER AT THREAT OF LITIGATION (Phoenix, AZ) In a letter authorized by Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, attorneys for the Sheriff tell DOJ officials in no uncertain terms that the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office will continue to cooperate with the federal government’s “racial profiling” investigation. But the letter also states reciprocal transparency is critical and demands full cooperation from the Justice Department to provide, in writing, information and facts which can prove, or disprove, the findings made public in a surprise press conference on...

Holder's Racial Politics Eric Holder must be amazed that President Obama was elected and he could become Attorney General. That's a fair inference after the Attorney General last Friday blocked South Carolina's voter ID law on grounds that it would hurt minorities. What a political abuse of law. In a letter to South Carolina's government, Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Thomas Perez called the state law—which would require voters to present one of five forms of photo ID at the polls—a violation of Section 5 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Overall, he noted, 8.4% of the state's registered...

President Shimon Peres challenged presidents Barack Obama and Nicolas Sarkozy Sunday to back up their vows not let Iran go nuclear. “I want to see actual results,” the Israeli president said. Speaking at the opening session of the annual Israel Business Conference, President Peres declared to a CNN reporter, "Iran is the center of all corruption. They kill, threaten, and poison….They are a significant threat to the entire world, not just to Israel. .....

Iran is morally corrupt and spoiled, President Shimon Peres told CNN's Piers Morgan Monday night. “An attack on its moral foundations is needed.” "They are the only country that threatens to destroy another country openly,” and an attack on the Islamic Republic’s foundations is needed "because Iran is a spoiled country. It is morally corrupt." Concerning sanctions and promises to stop Iran from becoming a nuclear power, he said, "We expect that the leaders that make a promise will fulfill it." If military action is needed, President Peres said that he hopes Israel will not be alone in attacking Iran’s...

MONTGOMERY, AL (WSFA) - The State Department of Education is advising school superintendents to hold off on providing enrollment data to the U.S. Department of Justice. The DOJ had requested Alabama school superintendents provide a list of all students who had withdrawn from schools since the beginning of the school year. Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez sent a letter to Alabama school systems wanting to know how many Hispanic students are enrolled in schools and how many have withdrawn since the beginning of the school year. Educators reported the new law caused many Hispanic students to stay home in the...

Obama’s Department of Justice has ordered Colorado to protect the interests of “language minority populations” by strengthening a Court Interpreter Oversight Committee that assures immigrants who don’t speak English get free translators.The new DOJ mandate also applies to civil cases, which means that U.S. taxpayers will fund interpreting services for foreigners who may stand to make settlement money. Under the agreement, announced this week, the Colorado Judicial Department will also develop “state and local language access plans” that address “both oral interpretation and the translation of vital written documents.”A revitalized state Court Interpreter Oversight Committee will be expanded to include...

Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez is accepting "full responsibility" for mischaracterizations in recent years that he graduated from the University of California, Berkeley. The Los Angeles Democrat's Assembly Web site says he "attended" UC Berkeley but does not indicate whether he got a degree. In a written statement, he said he regrets not doing enough to correct accounts that he graduated. "I take full responsibility for this mistake, and I regret it," Pérez said. Robin Swanson, Perez's spokeswoman, said today that he left UC Berkeley for financial and family reasons after attending for about four years.

HARTFORD, Conn. -- Convicted former Hartford Mayor Eddie Perez is seeking more than $130,000 in unused sick and vacation time. Bart Halloran, Perez's attorney, has sent to Hartford's director of human resources asking the former mayor be paid for 1,200 hours of unused vacation and 768 of unused sick time. Perez was convicted of using a city contractor to have free work done at his home and could be going to prison. The former mayor's criminal conviction doesn't change the fact he was a city employee, said Saundra Kee Borges with the city's Corporation Counsel.