Private: Assistant AG Thomas Perez Outlines Vision for Restoring Civil Rights Division

Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez gave a "60-day progress report" to a gathering at the National Press Club hosted by ACS, saying that while strides have been made in advancing civil rights, much work remained to be done. In particular, Perez said that the Division needs to be rejuvenated and refocused, to protect and advance civil liberties.

"It feels right to me that I should be giving my 60-day progress report to you, the American Constitution Society," Perez said. "When I consider ACS's own description of its mission - namely, to promote the values underlying our Constitution, including individual rights and liberties, and to being a force for improving the lives of all people, I realize how your mission and ours share a lot in common." Watch C-SPAN coverage of Perez's entire speech (right). A transcript of his remarks is here.

Perez said that in two short months on the job he has learned that too many people are under the notion that a Civil Rights Division may no longer be needed. But while, there has been some progress in the area of civil rights, those advancements should not be cited as proof that all is well for the nation's minorities. Indeed, Perez ticked off a number of stories that one would think could not be a part of the nation's landscape in the 21st century.

Perez said:

While last year's historic election marked a triumphant moment in our nation's long, complex and often painful history of civil rights, it was not the culmination of our journey, but rather an important mile marker along the way. I would ask those who believe we have reached the ideal of a post-racial society to consider this: On the night that Americans elected Barack Obama our nation's first African American president, three men on Staten Island reacted to the news by going out into their community to find African-Americans to assault in retaliation. Or consider that while we have a Latina Supreme Court Justice, the first press release we issued during my tenure announced a guilty plea from a Louisiana man who could not stand to have three Hispanics living across the street, and so he drove them from their home with gunshots and then burned it to the ground.

Enforcing hate crimes law and supporting the passage of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), which would bar workplace discrimination against people based on their sexual orientation or gender identity, would also be a high priority of this Civil Rights Division, Perez stressed.

The assistant attorney general addressed the well-documented politicization of the Civil Rights Division during the Bush administration. A Department of Justice inspector general report concluded that from 2003 to 2007, Bush political appointees blocked applicants with progressive affiliations from career jobs and promotions. An Obama transition team report, covered by The New York Times, found that during that time period, 236 civil rights lawyers left the Division.

"For eight years," Perez said, "the career staff was in most instances frozen out of the hiring process for career staff. Section chiefs were sometimes simply notified that a new lawyer or set of lawyers would be starting in their office the following week. Perhaps the most distressing fact of all is that 70 percent of the career attorneys working in the Civil Rights Division in 2003 had left by 2007."

Perez concluded, in part, "We will restore and transform the Division because there is no other option. That is the charge I have received from the President and from Attorney General Holder, who describes himself as an impatient Attorney General."

Civil rights, Equality and Liberty