NTY: Obama's Justice Dept. to Recharge Enforcement of Civil Rights

[mucifer]

By CHARLIE SAVAGE
Published: August 31, 2009

WASHINGTON — Seven months after taking office, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. is reshaping the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division by pushing it back into some of the most important areas of American political life, including voting rights, housing, employment, bank lending practices and redistricting after the 2010 census.

As part of this shift, the Obama administration is planning a major revival of high-impact civil rights enforcement against policies, in areas ranging from housing to hiring, where statistics show that minorities fare disproportionately poorly. President George W. Bush’s appointees had discouraged such tactics, preferring to focus on individual cases in which there is evidence of intentional discrimination.

To bolster a unit that has been battered by heavy turnover and a scandal over politically tinged hiring under the Bush administration, the Obama White House has also proposed a hiring spree that would swell the ranks of several hundred civil rights lawyers with more than 50 additional lawyers, a significant increase for a relatively small but powerful division of the government.

The division is “getting back to doing what it has traditionally done,” Mr. Holder said in an interview. “But it’s really only a start. I think the wounds that were inflicted on this division were deep, and it will take some time for them to fully heal.”... snip

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/01/us/politics/01rights.html?_r=1&hp=&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1251802872-6KmjatWMeKPyxzvyj6h2mA

[mucifer]

1. fyi this is a good thing.

[Jennicut]

2. Love it...the DOJ needs major overhaul after Bush

[flyarm]

3. can we get Habeas Corpus back? and about FISA..stop tapping our phones and reading our emails?

that would be a start!

I know, i know..it's the great chess game in the sky!!

and that powder isn't dry yet..

and the table has no silverware to set it with ..

but don't worry if you do nothing wrong ..bad things won't happen to YOUUUUUUUUUUUU

and Agent Mike outside your door is a figment of your imagination!!

[HamdenRice]

4. Habeas has already been restored nt

[flyarm]

5. sorry i can not find anywhere that says it was restored..can you please point out to me

where that is the case?

I can't find it at the ACLU sites, nor anywhere else.

I know what the SCOTUS ruled...but i do not find where it was totally restored...

I have found this though..from my local paper..

thanks ahead of time for giving me those answers i really want to know the full of it!!

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/promise/181/restore-habeas-corpus-rights-for-enemy-combatants/

Obama's remarks imply some may not have habeas rights
Updated: Wednesday, May 27th, 2009 | By Angie Drobnic Holan


Also in the speech, Obama talked about how the Guantanamo prisoners would be handled in the legal system. He described five types of prisoners and how they would be handled:

1. Prisoners who will be tried in the federal courts;
2. Prisoners who will be tried through military commissions (though Obama said he intends to modify rules for military commissions set by the Bush administration);
3. Prisoners who have been ordered released by the federal courts (Obama will honor those orders, he said);
4. Prisoners who will be turned over to other countries;
5. Prisoners who cannot be tried in court or through commissions but who will not be released.

It's this fifth category that appears to potentially violate Obama's promise on habeas corpus. During his speech, Obama said these would be the hardest cases to resolve: