{"id":21558,"date":"2014-09-25T15:00:03","date_gmt":"2014-09-25T19:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/?p=21558"},"modified":"2014-09-25T15:00:03","modified_gmt":"2014-09-25T19:00:03","slug":"eric-holder%e2%80%99s-legacy-at-doj-not-enforcing-the-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/21558\/eric-holder%e2%80%99s-legacy-at-doj-not-enforcing-the-law\/","title":{"rendered":"Eric Holder\u2019s Legacy at DOJ: Not Enforcing the Law"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eric Holder, the controversial face of the Obama Justice Department, is stepping down as United States Attorney General<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The timing seems odd. If Democrats lose control of the U.S. Senate in this year\u2019s midterm elections \u2013 a very likely prospect \u2013 it will be impossible for President Barack Obama to win confirmation for a replacement as polarizing as Holder.<\/p>\n

That would be a good thing for the Republic.<\/p>\n

Among the many blemishes on Holder\u2019s tenure as AG<\/a> \u2013 such as the Fast and Furious scandal, his unprecedented Contempt of Congress citation, his failed attempt to prosecute the 9\/11 conspirators in a civil court instead of a military tribunal \u2013 it\u2019s the so-called \u201clegacy\u201d actions Holder took that should give observers the most pause.<\/p>\n

According to NPR<\/a>, \u201cHolder most wants to be remembered for his record on civil rights: refusing to defend a law that defined marriage as between one man and one woman; suing North Carolina and Texas over voting restrictions that disproportionately affect minorities and the elderly; launching 20 investigations of abuses by local police departments; and using his bully pulpit to lobby Congress to reduce prison sentences for nonviolent drug crimes. Many of those sentences disproportionately hurt minority communities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Notice what\u2019s missing?<\/p>\n

Only one achievement on the list actually enforces<\/em> the law. (And even this area, prosecuting allegedly<\/em> abusive local police departments, tells us a lot since it\u2019s directed at cops and not, say, verified abuses by the New Black Panthers<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

Everything else \u2013 from refusing to defend a traditional marriage statute to playing a prison reform lobbyist \u2013 are actions designed to undermine the law as written.<\/p>\n

Eric Holder shouldn\u2019t worry. His legacy is clear. His will be remembered as the time when activism replaced lawyering and the rule of law suffered.<\/p>\n

Hopefully, it\u2019s not the start of a trend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eric Holder, the controversial face of the Obama Justice Department, is stepping down as United States Attorney General. The timing seems odd. If Democrats lose control of the U.S. Senate in this year\u2019s midterm elections \u2013 a very likely prospect \u2013 it will be impossible for President Barack Obama to win confirmation for a replacement […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[498,2847,316,3159],"class_list":["post-21558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-posts","tag-eric-holder","tag-fast-and-furious","tag-justice-department","tag-resign"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21558"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21558\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21568,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21558\/revisions\/21568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}