Good morning, and thank you for joining us today as we honor one of our nation’s most  cherished heroes.

Dr. King’s unrelenting commitment to his dream helped shepherd some of our most critical  civil rights laws; laws that continue today to protect and provide relief for those individuals who reside in the shadows.  His nonviolent activism and belief that equality was inevitable set an example for generations of Americans seeking to continue to perfect our nation, and continues to be felt in the 21st century.

Each year, we celebrate Dr. King not only to commemorate his great accomplishments, but  also to honor his legacy and to remind ourselves that his work has not been finished, that the journey toward true equal justice and equal opportunity is not yet complete.

In his letter from Birmingham Jail, where he was detained because of his unwavering  commitment to the pursuit of freedom and equality, he famously wrote: I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.

If Dr. King were with us today, He would recognize and applaud the great progress we have  made. I imagine he would feel proud of his great and lasting contributions to bettering our  nation. But he would not rest.

He would see individuals still targeted with violence because of the color of their skin, the  language they speak, the religion the practice, or whom they choose to love.  And he would  speak out.

He would see individuals denied access to housing or education or employment or critical  services because they look different, or because they have a disability, and he would take  action.

He would continue to work to promote justice and equality through peaceful means.   Dr. King’s legacy is far more than the great civil rights laws on our books – it is a mindset, a pragmatic yet effective approach to solving the critical problems of today that brings  people together for a common purpose.  It is a legacy of peaceful progress.

Each year we honor this legacy with programs such as this one. We also honor Dr. King by  dedicating ourselves to a day of service to others – which I hope you all will do next Monday. But we should also honor Dr. King by emulating him in our actions and our public  discourse. We should remember that faced with unrelenting and systematic hatred, he responded not with hatred of his own, but with reason and with love.

I am pleased to have the opportunity during this ceremony to introduce someone who  carries Dr. King’s torch forward today. Attorney General Eric Holder has been an unwavering supporter of our work in the Civil Rights Division.  He has repeatedly and  consistently made clear that the enforcement of our nation’s critical civil rights laws is a top priority for the Justice Department, and he has backed up his commitment with action.

We have made great strides in the last two years to restore and transform the Civil Rights  Division so that all individuals can benefit from the laws meant to protect them – strides that would not have been possible without the support of solid, committed leadership.  I am  grateful for his support and his commitment, and I am pleased to turn the program over the  Attorney General Holder.

Justice Department and Environmental Protection Agency officials spoke at the White House Forum on Environmental Justice (WhiteHouse.gov)

Assistant Attorney General Ignacia Moreno said Wednesday the Justice Department hasn’t sent enough of its staffers into communities to work one-on-one with people.

Moreno and Assistant Attorney General Tom Perez were among six panelists discussing enforcement and compliance efforts at the White House Forum on Environmental Justice.  The panel followed remarks by Attorney General Eric Holder.

During the discussion, Moreno said that although environment justice is “critically important…one of the things we [at DOJ] haven’t done is send our lawyers out in the community to talk one-on-one.� She went on to say that working with residents, local leaders and communities is essential to making strides in environmental justice.

In the future, Moreno continued, “you’re going to be seeing more of our lawyers talking to you� in community settings. She added that it is essential to have career lawyers working with communities to ensure that, once DOJ officials leave an area, there is someone who remains to continue their work.

“We come and go on the political level, but you need to have career people who are always going to be there,� she said. “It’s going to take time, but we have the commitment.�

Another key component to improving environmental justice is getting corporate counsel to be more social responsible, Moreno said. “They need to think about what the needs of the community are,â€� she said. “They need to be good neighbors.â€�

Moreno emphasized the collaboration with the Environmental Protection Agency, saying, “We are more embedded with our colleagues with EPA than ever before.�

The Justice Department will immediately begin an evaluation of the New Orleans Police Department that will likely lead to a consent decree, federal officials announced at a news conference Monday.

Mitch Landrieu (Mitch Landrieu for Mayor).

Thomas Perez (Photo by Ryan J. Reilly / Main Justice)

“We already have boots on the ground right now. We will spend a lot of time here in the weeks and months ahead in the city of New Orleans,” Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez said Monday.

Earlier this month, New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder asking the Department of Justice for help in rooting out abuse and corruption in the police department.

In a letter to Landrieu officially agreeing to conduct the assessment, Perez said the probe will identify areas or practices that need to be reformed and “examine allegations of excessive force, unconstitutional searches and seizures, racial profiling, failures to provide adequate police services to particular neighborhoods and related misconduct.”

At the news conference, Landrieu said that the city “must totally transform the criminal justice system.” He also called that the level of crime in the city was “unnatural and unacceptable.”

U.S. Attorney Jim Letten was also on hand for the announcement along with Department of Justice Deputy Assistant Attorney General Roy Austin Jr.

The assessment will likely lead to a consent decree with the city, a legally binding agreement that would allow the department to step in and institute changes, including the appointment of a federal monitor who would oversee any reforms.

Main Justice reported Friday that the Justice Department had accepted Landrieu’s request for an evaluation of the New Orleans Police Department.

The police department was already the subject of at least eight open civil rights investigations. DOJ had been investigating a post-Hurricane Katrina shooting in which New Orleans police officers allegedly shot at unarmed civilians in the wake of the 2005 hurricane that devastated the city.

—-

Update 10:10 p.m. In an interview with The New York Times before the news conference, Perez said he was optimistic about the pattern and practice investigation because of unusually widespread support for federal involvement from New Orleans citizens and officials.

“I’m not sure I’ve ever seen it in other cities at this early stage,� said Perez. “Often we spend months and sometimes years building that consensus.�

Perez said he felt that “right now the time is ripe and the critical forces have really come together.�

Leah Nylen contributed to this story.

UPDATE: The letter from Perez to Landrieu is embedded below.

AAG Perez NOPD Letter

The Department of Justice plans to announce Monday that it will conduct an assessment of the city of New Orleans’ troubled police department.

Thomas Perez (file photo by Ryan J. Reilly / Main Justice).

Ryan Berni, a spokesman for the mayor of New Orleans, confirmed to Main Justice late Friday that the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division will conduct an investigation of the police force. Details of the plan are set to be announced at a news conference in New Orleans Monday.

Last week, the city’s newly installed mayor, Mitch Landrieu, sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder asking the Department of Justice for help in rooting out abuse and corruption in the police department.

The Justice Department declined to comment on the announcement or the assessment.

Civil Rights Division chief Thomas Perez, along with a deputy assistant attorney general and Eastern District of Louisiana U.S. Attorney Jim Letten, will be on hand for the announcement.

Berni said that Landrieu met with Holder to discuss the city’s police department.

The DOJ’s assessment will likely lead to a consent decree with the city, a legally binding agreement that would allow the department to step in and institute changes, including the appointment of a federal monitor who would oversee any reforms. In 2000, the DOJ reached a similar deal with the city of Los Angeles.

The DOJ’s Civil Rights Division has been considering a lawsuit against the city under a 1991 law that allows the DOJ to intervene if it can prove a “pattern or practice� of disregarding the law or constitutional rights.

“Criminal prosecutions alone, I have learned, are not enough to change the culture of a police department,� Perez told the website Talking Points Memo in an interview last month. He added that the division was considering “every conceivable jurisdictional option and every conceivable intervention.�

The DOJ currently has at least eight open civil rights investigations into the New Orleans Police Department. Since 2008, the Justice Department has been investigating a post-Hurricane Katrina shooting in which New Orleans police officers allegedly shot at unarmed civilians in the wake of the 2005 hurricane that devastated the city. Four officers so far have pleaded guilty to involvement in the shooting at the Danziger Bridge in New Orleans or in the subsequent cover-up.

Leah Nylen contributed to this story.

The FBI is ready to close nearly 100 unsolved civil rights-era killings three years after the agency pledged to investigate the cases, The Washington Post reported Sunday. Investigators told the paper few indictments will be issued because of the deaths of prime suspects and the difficulty of gathering decades-old evidence.

Race did not play a role in nearly one-fifth of the 108 cases, according to the paper. In some cases the people died in accidents, non-racially motivated fights or in circumstances family members did not want made public.

FBI Special Agent Cynthia Deitle, head of the effort, told The Post that with the exception of a dozen or so cases that bureau knows who committed the crime. “Some we know; others we know but can’t prove. For every other case, we got it,” Deitle said.

Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez told The Post, “These racially motivated murders are some of the greatest blemishes on our nation’s history,”adding, . . . . If we can solve a number of these cases, that’s fantastic. But if we can bring to closure all of these cases, I think this will be well worth the effort.”

Tthe investigation has helped close information gaps and provide victim’s families with some closure, FBI investigators working on the project said. According to The Post, family members and victims’ rights advocates have long complained about how long it has taken for the federal government to investigate the unsolved crimes.

Assistant Attorney General Tom Perez (File Photo by Ryan J. Reilly / Main Justice)

Since taking the helm of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division in October, Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez has set about refocusing the priorities of the division — giving higher priority to prosecution of hate crimes, for instance, and working to advance his “agenda of restoration and revitalization” as he described in remarks to Justice Department colleagues at his formal installation ceremony last November.

Perez has also focused on the impact of sub-prime lending on minority communities. He has also testified in favor of a law to ban employers from discriminating on the basis of sexual identity.

Perez has said that the Civil Rights Division, which Attorney General Eric Holder has called the crown jewel of the Justice Department, will return to its historical mission of addressing racial discrimination while also confronting the new civil rights challenges of the 21st century. Perez said he will implement new rules for hiring career civil service lawyers intended to protect the process from politics.

The Civil Rights Division head sat down with Main Justice in his office at the Justice Department on Friday:

Main Justice: Politicized hiring was one of the problems that plagued the Bush administration. One argument critics of the new hiring rules you put in place have made is that the qualifications for the Civil Rights Division attract liberal candidates. What can you do to make sure that political affiliations do not influence hiring decisions?

Perez: “Well it’s the law that hiring decisions are not made with regard to political affiliations and we have made it clear not simply through my words but in writing, we’ve established a hiring process, a policy that clearly sets forth what you can and can’t do in the process of hiring personnel, and that it is not a close call.

“When I served on the hiring committee of the administration of the elder Bush and under Bill Clinton, we had one charge: find the best candidates, period, and that’s what we did and that’s what we’re doing now, and we’ve reduced that to writing, so that what occurred in the prior administration never occurs again.”

MJ: You’ve said that your office is dusting off disparate impact theory, most recently with the case filed in New Jersey. Do you think the courts have agreed with the theory?

Perez: “Every court that’s looked at disparate impact theory — in the housing context and in the employment context and in the voting context — have upheld the viability of disparate impact theory. So it’s clear that this is an arrow in our quiver as we move forward, but it is an arrow that indeed gathered dust so that’s why it’s so important whether it’s in New Jersey or in New York City, where a judge recently granted summary judgment in the New York firefighters case.

“That case is a remarkable set of facts. African-Americans and Latinos in New York City comprise over 50 percent of the police force. They comprise somewhere in the vicinity of 60 percent of the corrections personnel in the city, and firefighters, it’s somewhere in the vicinity of 7 percent. The judge not only found evidence of not only disparate impact in their hiring procedures, but also disparate treatment in that case.

“So I think it’s very important, and that case illustrates that the discrimination that we’d like to say is a thing of the past continues to persist and it’s critically important that our essential services personnel — firefighters, police officers, corrections officers — are the most qualified people and are not victims of discrimination. That’s why we’ll continue to use disparate impact theory whether it’s in fair lending, whether it’s in hiring or whether it’s in voting if the facts support it.”

MJ: I understand your office has taken on a role in regard to defending the government in cases on the employment docket that were previously handled by the Civil Division.

Perez: “I think the USERRA cases used to be in the Civil Division. USERRA [The Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act] is the law that protects service members who are doing remarkable service to our nation and then come home and find themselves victimized in the workplace because they don’t get their job back. When I talk about the fact that we’re ramping up enforcement in every area, USERRA is a perfect example of that. We’ve had somewhere in the vicinity of 22 cases in 2009, which was, when you look at the number of cases that were done in the preceding years, I think it’s more than was done in three years. We’ve dramatically ramped up enforcement in that area and the data shows it.

“That’s because people who are serving our country should be treated as heroes when they return home, not as victims, and they should not be victims of wrongdoing in the employment context and so we’re proud to be involved in those cases.”

MJ: The Civil Rights Division recently used Title IX to intervene in a case in New York which a boy was being bullied because he was gay. That statute uses similar language to Title VII in regard to gender discrimination. Do you think that the law as written already protects gay students and employees from discrimination or does the law need to be strengthened in that area?

Perez: “Well Title IX is the title of jurisdiction in that particular case, and it’s not the first time that the Justice Department has been involved in a case of this nature. In the Clinton administration, we were involved in a similar set of facts, and the facts are egregious. A person going to school trying to learn and being repeatedly abused, not simply psychologically, but physically, and the school district being notified, not simply once, but repeatedly, and the complaint alleges that they failed to take action.

“I’m hopeful that our involvement in this case will result in a resolution in that matter so that any boy or girl going to school can ensure that they are in a learning environment that enables them to learn and that doesn’t have them fearful for their life walking to school. As a parent, I want my children to be safe in school and I want my school district to take the necessary steps to keep my kids safe.”

MJ: The Civil Rights Division is also putting emphasis on human trafficking. What are some of your priorities in that area and how do your balance that new area of interest with the division’s other priorities?

Perez: “Human trafficking is a human scourge. We have two types of human trafficking cases that we have been seeing — forced labor cases where people are forced into conditions that amount to involuntary servitude, and then sex trafficking where people are chattel. And they’re no longer just in big urban cities. In the mid-90s we had a big case in Los Angeles, for instance, and we still have cases in there, but they are also in suburban and rural pockets of the country. Wherever you have immigrants you have potential for trafficking and the suburbanization of immigration has really made this a national challenge, and that’s why it will continue to be a priority.

“I really think we can do all these things within our resource complement because number one when you’re happy in your job, you’re motivated and you can get things done. Number two, we’ve got additional resources thanks to the attorney general and the president’s strong commitment to civil rights, so we’ve got a cavalry of 102 new people coming on board this year to help us in all these areas, and that’s very exciting.”

MJ: There was a focus in the Bush administration, particularly in the voting section, on so-called “reverse racism” cases. Do you think the law as it’s written is colorblind and will you file cases on behalf of those who fall outside of the categories that the Civil Rights Division has historically protected?

Perez: “We’ll certainly investigate any charge of discrimination, and that is the charge in the employment context, the voting context, the education contexts and all of the contexts.”

MJ: How is your office preparing for the census and redistricting?

Perez: “Well we’re working closely with our colleagues at the Census Bureau. I speak regularly with the general counsel there. I will personally be actively involved, and have been actively involved, in the marketing because we really have to get the message out there to the public that it is so critically important that everybody be counted. We have to get the message out there that you need not be scared about talking to the census workers. There’s no ill consequences, and there is privacy guaranteed in these conversations, and we have to eliminate the undercount, because the communities that we’re trying to serve, if you’re not counted, you’re not going to get served because your communities lose money.”

MJ: Friday was the anniversary of Roe v. Wade. Could you talk a little bit about the George Tiller murder case [Tiller was a doctor who performed late-term abortions] and what your office is doing in that area?

Perez: “We’re closely monitoring the state prosecution. We’ve been out in that area since shortly after the incident and we will continue to carefully monitor the case.”

Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez, head of the Civil Rights Division, speaks at a Muslim Public Affairs Council convention last month (photo courtesy MPAC).

The California-based Muslim Public Affairs Council has taken on a prominent liaison role with the Justice Department after the FBI cut off contact with another advocacy group that had been implicated in a major terrorism case.

The government’s outreach to American Muslims is a highly sensitive matter in law enforcement circles. MPAC, as the public affairs council is known, is one of two Muslim-American organizations now attending regular meetings led by the Civil Rights Division and including government officials the FBI, Department of Homeland Security and other agencies.

Previously, the Council on American-Islamic Relations held a seat at the table with FBI and DHS. But evidence in a major 2008 terrorism-support trial of leaders of a now-defunct Muslim charity, the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, showed that CAIR was founded as part of a U.S.-based support network for the Palestinian group Hamas.

It has been illegal since 1995 for Americans to lend financial or political support to Hamas, which has been held responsible for a campaign of suicide bombings against Israel in the 1990s and caused the U.S. to designate it a foreign terrorist organization.

MPAC, formed in 1988, has seen its star rise somewhat as CAIR’s has fallen. Last month MPAC hosted Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez at the group’s ninth annual convention in Los Angeles. In a keynote speech, the Civil Rights Division chief struck  MPAC’s policy themes, saying that racial profiling is “not just bad as a matter of civil rights, it is ineffective police work.”

The Justice Department walks a tightrope balancing the protection of Muslim-American civil rights and aggressively pursuing law enforcement strategies to prevent terrorist attacks. At times, those imperatives seem to conflict, when, for example, law enforcement agencies use informants to infiltrate mosques or identify high-risk airplane passengers through profiling techniques.

The challenges were underscored by the arrest on Christmas Day of an alleged al-Qaeda associate from Nigeria aboard a Detroit-bound flight from Amsterdam and by the November shooting spree at the Ft. Hood Army base in Texas, in which an apparently radicalized Muslim military psychiatrist is accused.

Eric Holder (Photo by Ryan J. Reilly / Main Justice)

Last summer, Attorney General Eric Holder said he was increasingly concerned about the threat posed by American citizens becoming radicalized – calling his daily threat briefings the most sobering part of his day.

Government and Muslim-American leaders say working together to prevent discrimination and hate crimes against Muslims can help deter terrorism incidents.

“We have a lot of contact with Arab-American and Muslim-American organizations, and I think one of the keys to the successful relationships that we have is that when events occur, we have very good lines of communication,” Perez said in response to a question from a Main Justice reporter during his speech at the National Press Club last month.

“We have issues that involve security and we also have issues that involved post-9/11 backlash. I’ve participated in my office in three or four large group meetings with various organizations, and what we’ve done is we’ve brought all the components together so that they’re not simply meeting with Tom Perez, they’re meeting with the FBI, they’re meeting with DHS,” said Perez.

Those meetings, which take place every other month in the Civil Rights Division’s offices, focus on addressing religious and ethnic discrimination and hate crimes and include representatives from various civil rights organizations, including MPAC and another California-based group, Muslim Advocates.

“Are there challenges that come up from time to time? Sure, there are undeniably challenges, but the key to resolving these challenges is making sure we communicate as best we can and we’re going to continue to do that,” Perez said.

Justice Department spokesperson Alejandro Miyar said the Civil Rights Division is committed to working with community and advocacy organizations representing a wide variety of constituencies, though he declined to name other groups with which the division regularly meets.

At his speech last month, Perez said that the Civil Rights Division is playing a role in the Justice Department’s internal review of its guidance on the use of race by federal law enforcement agencies. The Civil Rights Division has been keeping in close contact with the Muslim community following the Fort Hood shooting to “insure that we act swiftly against any incidents of backlash.”

He told the conference that Muslim Americans are “not only grieving, but are also fearful of irrational and unjustifiable acts of misplaced vengeance.”

No Foreign Funding

While CAIR accepted large donations from Saudi Arabia in the past, MPAC does not accept overseas money.  MPAC Executive Director Salam al-Marayati said he believes his group’s funding policy is one reason the DOJ is comfortable dealing with it. He said he preferred to speak about MPAC rather than speculate about the government’s concerns about other Muslim organizations.

Salam al-Marayati (MPAC)

“I can just tell you why I think they are engaging our organization, we are an organization that doesn’t take any money from overseas, we center everything on being an American institution with an American Muslim identity,” said al-Marayati. “Home is not where our grandparents are buried, but where our grandchildren are going to be raised.”

CAIR, said al-Marayati, has met with government officials who have expressed their concerns to the organization and made recommendations for them to follow if they want to reestablish their ties down the line. “I know there are problems, and they’ve had meetings with CAIR to tell them what those problems are about,” said al-Marayati.

A Justice Department spokesperson could not confirm such meetings.

Hamas’s campaign of suicide bombings against Israel in the 1990s caused President Clinton to name it a terrorist organization, and it has been illegal since 1995 for U.S. individuals or entities to provide support to Hamas.

The relationship MPAC has developed with the Justice Department has been “strong, healthy, and transparent” for years, according al-Marayati. In 2005, the DOJ’s western regional director of community relations, Ron Wakabayashi, spoke at an MPAC conference, causing some concern for Jewish organizations, reported The New York Sun. MPAC also regularly met with Justice Department officials, including former Attorney General John Ashcroft, during the Bush administration.

Eric Treene and Mazen Basrawi, two members of Perez’s senior leadership team, have advised him on relationships with Muslim and Arab-American organizations and religious liberty issues. Treene joined the Justice Department as a Bush administration hire in 2002 and is currently serving as special counsel to Perez in the division’s front office.

At the table, but not always in agreement

MPAC’s place at the Justice Department’s table does not mean it agrees with all the government’s counter-terrorism policies. The organization recently came out strongly against guidelines from the Transportation Security Administration, which instruct screeners to conduct full pat-down body checks and carry-on luggage checks for passengers traveling from 14 “terrorism-prone nations.”  MPAC called those guidelines “another name for counterproductive racial and ethnic profiling.”

“The new TSA guidelines deliver a propaganda victory to Al-Qaeda and other violent extremist groups, since they rob targeted groups of people from their civil liberties based on their ethnicity and country of origin,” said MPAC government liaison Alejandro Beutel. “Call it whatever you want, but this is religious and ethnic profiling at its worst.”

In March, a national coalition of Muslim organizations including MPAC warned that it would cease cooperating with the F.B.I. unless the agency stopped using informants inside mosques and “agents provocateurs to trap unsuspecting Muslim youth.�

At the same MPAC has also spoken out strongly against terrorism. Al-Marayati said those statements are rooted in the teachings of Islam.

“The major driver for those statements is the Islamic obligation to stand up for justice. Terrorism is the worst form of injustice. If you want for change or the Muslim people worldwide than that’s important but not through harming civilians or non-combatants and creating a culture of death,” said al-Marayati.

In November, MPAC released a report that laid out a blueprint for how Muslim American communities could “be an asset in securing our nation and preserving the rights of all Americans.”

Map of the path to radicalization in MPAC document

Recommendations centered upon a “hybrid framework” of the process of radicalization, and call for more community policing. While the report says that informants are “an extremely important tool and can be used to great effectiveness in various kinds of criminal investigations,” it said that the FBI has abused the use of informants. It proposes an intelligence gathering model that shifts away from the heavy use of informants and towards a community policing-based methodology.

Critics of the model say that MPAC’s plan undermines U.S. counterterrorism efforts, but al-Marayati said he believes his organization’s plan would be more effective because it would build trust between Muslim-American communities and counter-terrorism government officials.

“In my opinion, [informants] don’t serve any national security interest, they create a lot of busy work,” said al-Marayati. “I think it’s a sloppy process that doesn’t really get to the root of the problems, so we have our criticisms of it.” He said he recognized that it was the FBI’s right to use informants, but he believed the process of community policing would be more effective.

Al-Marayati cited the “Lackawanna Six” case as an example of how his organization’s relationship with the government can help prevent an attack. In that case, an al-Qaeda sleeper cell was broken up near Buffalo, N.Y., based on a tip from a source close to MPAC shortly after the first anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, he said.

He also said the Nigerian father who approached the American embassy concerned about the extremist ties of his son, the would-be Christmas day bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, epitomizes the concerns of every Muslim parent. “What we’re saying is that that can be used as a strength, we can leverage [the relationship] as an asset in our community.”

Perez on Balancing National Security Interests and Outreach to Muslim Organizations

MPAC Executive Director on MSNBC

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Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez at the National Press Club on Friday (photo by Ryan J. Reilly / Main Justice).

Appearing at the National Press Club on Friday, Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez gave an impassioned speech on his vision for the Civil Rights Division, while criticizing its actions under the George W. Bush administration with the harshest language he has used to date.

“I learned, to my great disappointment, that those who had been entrusted with the keys to the division, and to its great power to pursue justice, treated the division instead like a buffet line at the cafeteria, cherryâ€�picking which laws to enforce,” Perez said in prepared remarks before the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy.

“I’ve seen the eyes and the faces of the wonderful career professionals who toiled during the last eight years, who did their best and did so much, but it was so difficult,” said Perez during his speech.

“I must say I wasn’t surprised by much of the data  [showing fewer civil rights prosecutions in other areas during the Bush administration]. I rather expected it, but I was rather shocked in the hate crimes setting because Ed Meese made hate crimes a priority, Brad Reynolds made hate crimes a priority, John Dunne made hate crimes a priority, George Herbert Walker Bush made the prosecution of hate crimes a priority, Bill Clinton made the prosecution of hate crimes a priority, and Barack Obama and Eric Holder will once again make the prosecution of hate crimes a significant priority,” said Perez.

Touching on his theme of transformation and revitalization of the Civil Rights Division, Perez said that it  must recognize “emerging areas of interest, areas where the Civil Rights Division may not have played a large role historically, but must play a large role today. One essential area is the area of civil rights and human rights, recognizing that we must set an example for the world.”

Perez recounted his testimony before a subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary panel last week on how the Civil Rights Division saw its role in implementing several international human rights treaties. He said the division would be working closely with the State Department on international human rights issues to make sure that the U.S. is in compliance with those treaties.

“We are the nation’s problem-solvers, not simply the nation’s litigators,” said Perez. “I’m a firm believer that if you want a job done well, give it to a busy person, and we’re having a lot of busy people at our department,” said Perez.

The conclusion of Perez’s speech, filmed by Main Justice, can be viewed below. The full speech, as aired on C-SPAN, can be viewed here.

ACS Remarks 12 18 09

Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) introduced a resolution this week that would direct Attorney General Eric Holder to provide Congress with “all information” relating to the Justice Department’s dismissal of a case against members of the New Black Panther Party.

The measure was referred to the House Judiciary Committee. Because the measure is a resolution of inquiry, dealing with information that the House needs to perform its work, it has a special parliamentary status, and must be dealt with within 14 legislative days, according to House rules. The most likely action is a Judiciary Committee markup.

Here is Rep. Wolf’s statement as he introduced the resolution on Wednesday:

“I rise today to introduce a Resolution of Inquiry directing the attorney general to transmit to the House all information relating to the decision to dismiss an important voter intimidation case, United States v. New Black Panther Party. The case sought to enforce Voting Rights Act statutes against members of the New Black Panther Party that threatened Philadelphia voters — both verbally and physically — last year.

“This case was inexplicably dismissed earlier this year — over the ardent objections of the career attorneys overseeing the case as well as the department’s own appeal office.

“I regret that Congress must resort to oversight resolutions as a means to receive information about the dismissal of this case, but the Congress and the American people have a right to know why this case was not prosecuted.

“As ranking Republican member of the House Commerce-Justice-Science Appropriations Subcommittee that funds the Justice Department, I take oversight of the department very seriously.

“I also strongly support voting rights protections. In 1981, I was the only member — Republican or Democrat — of the Virginia delegation in the House to vote for the Voting Rights Act and was harshly criticized by the editorial page of the Richmond Times Dispatch, and when I supported its reauthorization in 2006, I was criticized again by editorial pages.

“Time and again over the last year, the department has stonewalled any effort to learn about the decision to dismiss this case. I have written Attorney General Holder on six occasions asking for an explanation for the dismissal of this case. To date, I have received no response from him.

“I wrote the DOJ inspector general to request a review of this decision. He deferred to the Office of Professional Responsibility – which reports directly to the attorney general. I have written the Office of Professional Responsibility seeking information on its investigation. The office has refused to share any information.

“In fact, the only response I have received — from a legislative affairs staffer -– was woefully incomplete and -– in places -– inaccurate.

“Two months ago, I met with House Judiciary Chairman Conyers to ask for his assistance in obtaining this information, but he has yet to take any action. This is a shameful failure to provide necessary congressional oversight.

“It is not only Congress that is being stonewalled by the attorney general. The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights has repeatedly sought this same information, in fulfillment of its statutory responsibility to ensure the enforcement of civil rights law.

“After being similarly rebuffed, the commission filed subpoenas with the department for this information as well as to interview the career attorneys that handled the case.

“However, we understand that the attorney general has instructed his department to ignore these subpoenas. The nation’s chief law enforcement officer is forcing these career attorneys to choose between complying with the law and complying with the attorney general’s obstruction.

“At least one of the attorneys has been compelled to obtain private counsel.

“I urge the House Judiciary Committee to report this resolution out favorably and to demand that the attorney general answer the questions surrounding this case. The career attorneys and Appellate Division within the department sought to demonstrate the federal government’s commitment to protecting voting rights by vigorously prosecuting any individual or group that seeks to undermine this right.

“This House must not turn a blind eye to the attorney general’s obstruction. He has an obligation to answer the legitimate questions of the House and the Civil Rights Commission. It is imperative that we protect the right of all Americans to vote — the sacrosanct and inalienable right of any democracy.â€�

In other developments related to the New Black Panther matter, Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez, head of the Civil Rights Division, confirmed to reporters on Thursday that several current and former employees of the division had been subpoenaed by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.