Civil rights
July 12, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
On Wednesday, the Senate confirmed Brian Benczkowski as head of the Criminal Division of the Justice Department. Thus, a year and a half into the Trump administration, the Senate has finally confirmed one of Trump’s nominees to a key assistant attorney general position. Three other such key positions remain vacant. They are head of the Civil Rights Division (Eric Dreiband), head of the Environment and Natural Resources Division (Jeff Clark),
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July 4, 2018 — Scott Johnson
The Department of Education has posted the rescission of Obama era federal regulatory guidance documents encouraging educational institutions to discriminate on the basis of race under cover of the “diversity” and “affirmative action” shibboleths. We previewed the rescission yesterday here. The Department of Education has now posted it here. It comes in the form of a “Dear Colleague” letter signed by senior officers of the Department of Education and the
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June 4, 2018 — Steven Hayward
The Supreme Court has issued its ruling in the much anticipated Masterpiece Cakeshop, Ltd. v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, and the religious liberty of the cake baker, Jack Phillips, won out by a 7 – 2 vote. It appears at a first quick skim that it is a narrow ruling, but until I can wade into it more thoroughly it will be difficult to tell whether a new and clear doctrine
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April 4, 2018 — Steven Hayward
The milestones of 1968 are being recalled day-by-day, reminding us of what a roller coaster year it was. The decision of LBJ not to run for re-election (cheered lustily by the left) was followed just five days later by the assassination in Memphis of Martin Luther King, on April 4—fifty years ago today. It is hard to believe that at the beginning of 1968, things looked decent for Johnson. So
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February 27, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
In December, the Senate was on the verge of confirming Chai Feldblum for another term as a commissioner of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Feldblum, a leading gay rights advocate, is the architect of the Obama administration’s aggressive LGBT policy. While strong conservative nominees, including ones for top positions at the Department of Justice, have been on hold for the better part of a year, Feldblum was all set to
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January 16, 2018 — Steven Hayward
Have you you ever noticed that for today’s civil rights movement, every racial problem is the equivalent of the Edmund Pettus Bridge? Everything is Selma! And have you ever noticed that for modern environmentalists, the Cuyahoga River is burning forever? What would have happened if the Edmund Pettus Bridge had been built over the Cuyahoga River? You’d get climate change uber alles. To wit: Jacqueline Patterson of the NAACP’s Environmental
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January 16, 2018 — Scott Johnson
Former FBI Director James Comey has been a public figure for a long time, but we are only now really getting to know him. It is difficult to fathom the depth of his self-regard. He is deeply imbued with the sense of his own righteousness. He therefore played the part of a straight-talking G-Man with undiluted conviction. No one would ever mistake him for a man with a sense of
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January 15, 2018 — Scott Johnson
When Martin Luther King, Jr., brought his nonviolent campaign against segregation to Bull Connor’s Birmingham, he laid siege to the bastion of Jim Crow. In Birmingham between 1957 and 1962, black homes and churches had been subjected to a series of horrific bombings intended to terrorize the community. In April 1963 King answered the call to bring his campaign to Birmingham. When King landed in jail on Good Friday for
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January 9, 2018 — Steven Hayward
Readers may be vaguely aware that New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and two other AGs filed suit again ExxonMobil alleging that “they knew” about climate change decades ago, but have been practicing “deception” ever since. These lawsuits all came with subpoena demands for thousands of pages of documents, no doubt hoping to turn up . . . what exactly? This is a transparent attempt to turn policy disagreements into
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November 24, 2017 — Paul Mirengoff
Many conservatives would scoff at the idea that Attorney Jeff Sessions is President Trump’s most effective cabinet member. They would cite his decision to recuse himself from the Russia investigation (probably the right call), his refusal to appoint a special counsel to investigate Hillary Clinton (probably the right call), and his failure to remember various obscure meetings with Russians, etc. (unfortunate). But those who pay close attention to policy know
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October 16, 2017 — Steven Hayward
Today Governor Jerry Brown vetoed a bill from the California state legislature that would have codified the previous Title IX “guidance” about sexual assault and harassment on college campuses. Referencing a previously enacted California law imposing an “affirmative consent” standard for hookups (“Yes means yes,” along with a “preponderance of evidence” standard for making judgments), Brown today says this: Since this law was enacted, however, thoughtful legal minds have increasingly questioned
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October 12, 2017 — Paul Mirengoff
We have noted the reluctance of major Democrats to speak out against Harvey Weinstein, the serial sexual harasser and alleged rapist. As John wrote: Hillary Clinton, whom Weinstein supported heavily, remained silent until today [Tuesday, October 10], when she claimed to be appalled by the revelations that have come out about Weinstein. About which, of course, she had no idea until now. Barack Obama maintained his silence even longer, but
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September 24, 2017 — Steven Hayward
Are Asians an oppressed minority in America, or not? We know for a fact that elite universities are nowadays discriminating against Asian applicants in much the same way they discriminated against Jewish applicants decades ago. But didn’t a lot of Asians historically suffer the same kind of discrimination that Irish, Italian, and other immigrants nowadays considered part of the world of “white supremacy”? For example, there’s a little noticed passage
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September 12, 2017 — Steven Hayward
Ta-Nehesi Coates has a new essay out about Trump that is generating a lot of buzz, entitled “The First White President.” Here are a couple of excerpts about what he has to say about Trump: He is preeminently the white man’s President, entirely devoted to the welfare of white men. He is ready and willing at any time during the first year of his administration to deny, postpone, and sacrifice
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August 18, 2017 — Steven Hayward
Further to my comments the other day about the issues emerging from Charlottesville, a few more observations and interrogatories: It is understandable that Democrats would be agitating to remove Confederate-honoring statues. After all, it is their history that they need to make go away. You know, things like this: I won’t vouch for the accuracy of the histogram below (after all, it was produced by a hate group, the Southern
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June 30, 2017 — Paul Mirengoff
President Trump has nominated my friend and former law partner Eric Dreiband to be Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice. This is a fantastic selection. Eric is an outstanding lawyer, a solid conservative, and one of the finest individuals I know. Politico greets Eric’s nomination with a hit piece, called “Activists unhappy with Trump’s nominee to lead civil rights unit.” The article, by
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June 26, 2017 — Steven Hayward
I’m on the road today, departing shortly on a flight to Munich, and then connecting on to Bulgaria tomorrow (long story—I’ll try to post updates when I get internet access), but I’m keeping an eye out for Supreme Court news, especially the hoped-for retirement announcement of Justice Kennedy. One announcement from the Court today is important: they are taking up the appeal of Masterpiece Cakeshop in Lakewood, Colorado, which had
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