U.S. Commission on Civil Rights

New White House Picks (Almost) Rebalance Civil Rights Commission

Ryan J. Reilly | January 27, 2011, 11:45AM

Roberta Achtenberg and Marty R. Castro

President Barack Obama on Wednesday appointed two new commissioners to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, a federal agency best know recently for its partisan focus on investigating the New Black Panther Party voter intimidation case. The White House's move will rebalance what was intended to be a bipartisan panel which came under conservative control thanks to a move during the Bush administration to "game" the system.

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Commission On Civil Rights

Civil Rights Commission Chalks Ups Bush DOJ Illegal Hiring To 'Ideological Conflict'

Ryan J. Reilly | October 28, 2010, 3:48PM

J. Christian Adams and Christopher Coates

During the Bush administration, political leadership of the Civil Rights Division illegally made career hiring decisions based on ideology, a Justice Department report concluded. Bradley Schlozman was found to have violated federal law, referring to attorneys in the Voting Section as "mold spores," and hiring conservatives he dubbed "good Americans."

But in a draft of a report they will vote on tomorrow, the conservative-controlled U.S. Commission on Civil Rights -- which didn't seem to take an interest in those allegations a few years ago -- chalks those violations of law up to "ideological conflict."

If the press cared so much about the politicization that took place during the Bush administration, the report says, then reporters should be all over over the allegations against the Obama administration made by two individuals with ties to that politicization.

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Civil Rights Commission

Bush-Era Voting Section Chief: DOJ Biased Against White People

Ryan J. Reilly | September 24, 2010, 12:32PM

Christopher Coates

The former chief of the Voting Section of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division says it was a "travesty on justice" for the DOJ not to allow attorneys to fully pursue a civil case against members of the New Black Panther Party.

Christopher Coates, now an assistant U.S. attorney in South Carolina, testified Friday at the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights hearing on the handling of the New Black Panther Party case. The conservative-dominated commission is preparing a report on how the DOJ handled the case and whether officials pursue the race-neutral enforcement of voting laws.

In his prepared testimony, Coates says there is a "hostility in the Civil Rights Division (CRD) and Voting Section toward the equal enforcement of some of the federal voting laws."

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New Black Panthers

Former Voting Chief Set To Testify As Conservatives Wrap Up New Black Panthers Report

Ryan J. Reilly | September 24, 2010, 9:55AM

Tom Perez, J. Christian Adams, and Christopher Coates

It's been 689 days since two men affiliated with a fringe group called the New Black Panther Party, one of them carrying a nightstick, stood outside of the a polling place dressed in military garb in an overwhelmingly African-American community in Philadelphia.

The conservative majority of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights had been prepared today to approve a report that observers expected would blast the Obama administration for the decision to drop the civil case against all but one of defendants, which was brought in the waning days of the Bush administration.

But mid-afternoon Wednesday, the former chief of the Voting Section of the Civil Rights Division who signed off on the case, Chris Coates, sent this letter to the commission chairman stating that -- in defiance of the Justice Department's order -- he would like to appear before the panel.

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DOJ Civil Rights Division

DOJ Inspector General Will Investigate Civil Rights Division's Voting Section

Ryan J. Reilly | September 13, 2010, 7:02PM

DOJ Inspector General Glenn Fine and Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA)

Justice Department Inspector General Glenn A. Fine says he will examine the Civil Rights Division's enforcement of voting rights laws after being pressured by GOP House members to examine DOJ's handling of a case against members of the New Black Panther Party.

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Commission On Civil Rights

Commission on Civil Rights: Protecting America From (Reverse) Racism

Rachel Slajda | July 28, 2010, 8:46AM

Gerald Reynolds, chairman of the US Commission on Civil Rights

The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights' investigation into the New Black Panthers case -- specifically, whether racial bias played a role in the Justice Department's decision to close the case -- is part of a pattern at the commission: A pattern of investigating almost exclusively, for lack of a better word, reverse racism.

The conservative majority on the commission, as well as former DOJ lawyer J. Christian Adams and much of the right-wing (including many Republican senators), believe that black members of the New Black Panther Party engaged in widespread intimidation of white voters on Election Day 2008. Further, according to Adams, the Obama administration is purposely dropping cases against black defendants in a blanket policy of pro-black racism.

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