By Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com A top lawyer for the ACLU is President Obama’s choice to head the civil rights division of the Justice Department, a position that has been without a permanent leaders for more than a year, the Washington Post reports. Vanita Gupta, 39,will become the acting head of the division Wednesday. A longtime…
Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com The U.S. Senate on Wednesday narrowly rejected President Obama’s choice to lead the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. The 47-52 vote was shy of the majority needed, the New York Daily News reports. Debo Adegbile couldn’t muster a majority because eight Democrats joined all 44 Republicans in voting no. At issue was…
Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com President Obama’s nominee of a key Justice Department position is coming under more attack. The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports that Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett and former Gov. Tom Ridge urged the U.S. Senate to reject Debo Adegbile because he helped overturn the death penalty for a convicted cop killer. Still, the Senate Judiciary…
Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com Republican lawmakers lashed out at the Justice Department with accusations of racism and preferential treatment in the civil rights division, the Houston Chronicle reports. At a Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday, former employees and a March Inspector General’s report were used to suggest the division was guided by race, not justice. “The IG report…
Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com A report that chronicled “hostile, racist and inappropriate behavior” among Justice Department employees has prompted a senior Republican in Congress to question why the workers are still employed, the Washington Times repots. Sen. Chuck Grassley’s inquiry follows an alarming report by Inspector General Michael Horowitz, who found ideological differences that were disrupting…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com A white Supremacist from Oregon is off to prison. A federal judge in Toledo sentenced Daniel Lee Jones of Portland to 18 months in prison for sending the president of the Lima, Ohio, chapter of the NAACP, a noose by mail. He pleaded guilty in May. In his plea agreement, Jones…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com Baltimore cop Gregory Mussmacher was convicted in state court of assault after he used his police baton to strike a handcuffed and shackled juvenile in the head and face. But the conviction was reversed. So in stepped the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, which convicted Mussmacher in May for the 2004…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com WASHINGTON — Say it ain’t so Sheriff Joe. The Justice Department filed a lawsuit Thursday against Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, claiming the Arizona lawman and his department have refused to fully cooperate with the feds’ investigation into allegations his department discriminates against Hispanics in police practices and jail operations. The…
