House Republicans, in a lengthy report on the Justice Department’s leak investigations, formally accused Attorney General Eric Holder of misleading Congress with “deceptive” testimony that he knew nothing of the “potential prosecution” of the press.
Tag Archives: Justice Department
Why 4 Suspected Nazi War Criminals Still Live in US
Thirty-four years ago, the Justice Department started hunting suspected Nazi war criminals living in the US. The department found 137 of them, but less than half actually left the country, whether voluntarily or via deportation. Another 20 died while their cases were still pending, while at least 20 others never… …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Newser – Home
Suspected Nazi war criminals in US despite deportation orders, eligible for public benefits
At least 10 suspected Nazi war criminals ordered deported by the United States never left the country, according to an Associated Press review of Justice Department data — and four are living in the U.S. today. All remained eligible for public benefits such as Social Security until they exhausted appeals, and in one case even beyond.
Worried About Privacy? How About Common Core?
There’s an intense debate right now over “Common Core,” an effort to implement a set of education standards in public schools nationwide. The Common Core State Standards thus far have been adopted by 45 states and the District of Columbia.
Though it isn’t my area of expertise, I’ve received numerous impassioned emails on the subject. Among them, one person’s concerns particularly struck me.
This person is an expert in the field of education. She is thoughtful, serious, and no foe of public education. Her concerns especially hit home given current fears over privacy intrusions by the federal government. Those fears have swirled around the National Security Agency, the Justice Department, and the IRS. But they don’t end there. There are likewise potentially serious privacy problems involving current and proposed education policy, which likewise relate to data collection, dissemination, and use.
To that end, my friend is hoping to at least help kindle some public awareness.
“The portion [of current education policy] that I believe is most important for raising public awareness,” she writes, “is the changes to the FERPA regulations which have greatly expanded who has access to student data.” FERPA is the Federal Education Rights and Privacy Act of 1974. Changes have been made to FERPA that (some believe) will leave parents uninformed as to how their children’s records are shared. “Parents seem totally unaware of what data is being collected,” she adds. “In Pennsylvania it is collected under something called the PIMS system, but in other states it has different labels.”
There’s more. There’s also the problem of a rise in “outside vendors and providers to manage student data—again, without parental consent.”
How, specifically, would this happen?
For starters, Common Core standards, as was the case with previous standards, lead to much testing, which involves a great deal of data collection on students. Coupled with this heightened collection of student data is the prevalence of so-called “longitudinal state reporting systems.” According to my friend, as part of the “Race to the Top” initiative (a federal educational initiative), states were encouraged to create “robust data collection systems.” These systems were touted as a mechanism to provide school districts, state governments, and federal policymakers with more data to analyze trends in student achievement and improve educational efforts. While this might seem benign, notes my friend, we cannot ignore the sheer volume of data that will be collected and how that data might be misused. For instance, most parents have no idea that their child’s “personal information” includes not just test scores but social security numbers, attendance records, records of interaction with school counselors, identification of learning disabilities, and even disciplinary records.
All of this is being collected.
And yet, because such enhanced data collection exceeds the resources of many districts and states, schools will be forced to contract the service to corporations that collect, manage, and store such data—and possibly share it. In other words, outside data managers must be employed to maintain this personal data on your kids. Is there any level of oversight to ensure that this …read more
Will Supreme Court Take the German Homeschooler Case? Odds Better Than Average, Lawyer Says
The odds that the U.S. Supreme Court will take the case of the Romeikes, a German homeschooling family that the U.S. Justice Department is seeking to deport, are better than average, Michael Farris said Tuesday on the Mike Huckabee radio show. …read more
Source: The Christian Post
Jim Sensenbrenner, GOP Voting Rights Act Champion, Fears Black Panthers Case Will Stop Reform
By The Huffington Post News Editors
WASHINGTON — The best hope for replacing a key provision of the Voting Rights Act is a white Republican lawyer from Wisconsin who supports voter ID laws, thinks the Justice Department went easy on the New Black Panther Party, played a key role in the impeachment of President Bill Clinton and once said first lady Michelle Obama has a “big butt.”
Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner is a key voice in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives for replacing Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act, which determines which parts of the U.S. must have changes to their voting laws precleared by the Justice Department. Section 4 was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court last month.
Sensenbrenner, who helped pass reauthorizations of the Voting Rights Act in 1982 and 2006, is once again a key Republican figure now that Congress is trying to fix what the Supreme Court killed. He was on the phone with Attorney General Eric Holder soon after the ruling came down and appeared before at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing last week.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Huffington Post
Justice Department sues Florida over disabled kids in nursing homes
The U.S. Justice Department filed a lawsuit against Florida on Monday, accusing the state of unnecessarily institutionalizing about 200 disabled children in nursing homes and cutting services that would allow them to receive care at home.
IRS Watchdog ‘disturbed’ Agency Withheld Documents
WASHINGTON — The investigator who wrote a scathing report about the Internal Revenue Service targeting tea party groups says he is “disturbed” the agency withheld newly released documents showing progressive groups may also have been singled out for additional scrutiny.
IRS Inspector General J. Russell George told a congressional panel Thursday the IRS did not provide the documents to his office during a yearlong audit. George said he just received the documents last week.
George issued a report in May that said IRS agents in a Cincinnati office improperly singled out groups with “tea party” and other conservative labels for additional scrutiny when they applied for tax-exempt status during the 2010 and 2012 elections.
George’s report blamed ineffective management for allowing the practice to continue for more than 18 months, delaying hundreds of applications for more than a year.
Since the revelations were made public, three congressional committees and the Justice Department launched investigations and much of the top leadership was replaced, including the acting commissioner.
Read more at Official Wire. By Stephen Ohlemacher.
FBI requests Florida police not return gun to Zimmerman
The report comes after it was revealed Wednesday that the Justice Department is trolling for email tips on Zimmerman as it weighs a possible federal civil rights case against him.
Senate OKs Obama pick to head Labor Department
A divided Senate confirmed Thomas Perez on Thursday to become secretary of labor, elevating the son of Dominican immigrants who as a top Justice Department official won praise from Democrats for aggressively enforcing civil rights laws and criticism from Republicans for being a liberal ideologue.
Obama’s Rule By Decree
Barack Obama has never been clear on the distinction between sovereign and servant, between the American people and those, including himself, elected to do the people’s business. We saw that yet again this week with the president’s unilateral rewrite of the Bataan Death March known as the Affordable Care Act — Obamacare. For this president, laws are not binding expressions of the popular will, but trifling recommendations to be ignored when expedient.
The collapse of law — not just Obamacare but law in general — is the Obama administration’s most egregious scandal. With the IRS here, Benghazi there, and Eric Holder’s institutionalized malevolence crowding the middle, it gets little direct attention. Perhaps it is so ubiquitous, so quotidian, that we’ve become inured to it.
Above all else, though, the office of the president was created to take care that the laws be faithfully executed. For this president, to the contrary, law is non-existent — and not merely law in the traditional sense of our aspiration to be “a nation of laws, not men.” Obama has contorted the law into a weapon against our constitutional order of divided powers and equal protection for every American.
As with most things Obama, this Olympian outrage springs from a kernel of propriety. We want our laws enforced, particularly when they reflect basic obligations of government in a free, civil society. Nevertheless, we know that the resources of government are finite, that laws are numerous and elastic, and that a federalist system implies a significant enforcement role for states. Thus, our legal system is premised on executive discretion. Not every law can or should be enforced to its fullest extent — nobody would want to live in that sort of society. To execute the laws faithfully is to remain mindful of the federal government’s essential but finite role in our framework and to concentrate its limited resources on enforcement of the most vital laws.
As a practical matter, this necessitates selectivity — some laws will go unenforced, some wrongs unaddressed. With a president who acts in good faith, this is not a problem. For example, simple possession of prohibited narcotics is a federal crime. But it is also a state crime. Given the need to prioritize, it is sensible for the feds to focus their efforts on what the federal government was designed for — international and interstate challenges that the states are not well equipped to address. So the Justice Department targets major drug-importation and distribution networks, leaving less serious drug infractions to the local district attorneys. Notice: This does not mean the executive branch is effectively decriminalizing less serious drug offenses in contravention of Congress’s statutes. It means the public’s federal buck goes to where it gets the best bang.
The separation-of-powers principle also has implications for executive discretion. To promote liberty, the Framers constructed a central government of divided authorities in which each branch was given tools to check inevitable encroachments by the others. Congress has an irresistible propensity to enact laws that usurp the …read more
Trayvon Martin Protest Leaders Revealed
Dream Defenders, the main group that has been agitating the protest movement surrounding the Trayvon Martin case, was spawned by activists employed by a who’s who of the race-hijacking radical left.
From the socialist-oriented SEIU union to ACORN to Occupy to a litany of George Soros-funded organizations, the deep connections behind Dream Defenders raises questions about the motivation of an organization that claims to be a grassroots effort working to oppose racism.
Dream Defenders has been leading Martin protests since the onset and has been credited with agitating for George Zimmerman’s arrest.
The group was behind the protests that blockaded the Sanford Police Department, demanding the police chief be fired for failing to bring charges against Zimmerman, who was acquitted of second-degree murder Saturday.
The small Community Relations Service at Eric Holder’s Justice Department facilitated a meeting between Dream Defenders and city officials that resulted in a Justice review of the police department.
Read More at WND . By Aaron Klein.
Fred Hochberg Confirmation: Senate Approves Latest Obama Nominee, Despite Grumbling
By The Huffington Post News Editors
WASHINGTON — The Senate has easily confirmed Fred Hochberg for a second term heading the Export-Import Bank as a bipartisan pact seems to be holding over seven of President Barack Obama’s stalled nominations.
Senators prepared to cast a second, more controversial vote on whether to end a filibuster against Thomas Perez. He’s Obama’s pick for Labor Secretary.
Perez is a top Justice Department official. Republicans have been criticizing him for not obeying a congressional subpoena that sought his personal emails in a whistle-blower case against the city of St. Paul, Minn.
Read More…
More on Barack Obama
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Huffington Post
Video: Wisconsin Man Beaten By A Dozen Racist Teens Over Zimmerman Verdict
By NewsEditor
If this is happening in Wisconsin, it can happen anywhere in this country…
Coalition sues to halt electronic surveillance
Rights activists, church leaders and drug and gun rights advocates found common ground and filed a lawsuit against the federal government to halt a vast National Security Agency electronic surveillance program.
In the lawsuit filed Tuesday, San Francisco’s Electronic Frontier Foundation, representing the unusually broad coalition of plaintiffs, is seeking an injunction against the NSA, Justice Department, FBI and directors of the agencies.
The suit filed in federal court in San Francisco challenges what the plaintiffs describe as an illegal and unconstitutional program of dragnet electronic surveillance.
The suit comes after former NSA contractor Edward Snowden leaked details about NSA surveillance programs earlier this year.
NSA public affairs deferred comment on the lawsuit to the Justice Department. A Justice Department spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox US News
Feds Admit Improper Scrutiny Of Candidate, Donor Tax Records
A government watchdog has found for the first time that confidential tax records of several political candidates and campaign donors were improperly scrutinized by government officials, but the Justice Department has declined to prosecute any of the cases.
Its investigators also are probing two allegations that the Internal Revenue Service “targeted for audit candidates for public office,” the Treasury’s inspector general for tax administration, J. Russell George, has privately told Sen. Chuck Grassley.
In a written response to a request by Mr. Grassley, the ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee, Mr. George said a review turned up four cases since 2006 in which unidentified government officials took part in “unauthorized access or disclosure of tax records of political donors or candidates,” including one case he described as “willful.” In four additional cases, Mr. George said, allegations of improper access of IRS records were not substantiated by the evidence.
Mr. Grassley has asked Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. to explain why the Justice Department chose not to prosecute any of the cases. The Iowa Republican told The Washington Times that the IRS “is required to act with neutrality and professionalism, not political bias.”
The investigation did not name the government officials who obtained the IRS records improperly, nor did it reveal the identities or political parties of the people whose tax records were compromised. By law, taxpayer records at the IRS are supposed to be confidential.
Read More at The Washington Times . By Dave Boyer and Ben Wolfgang.
Video: DOJ Ignores Jury Verdict, Trying Zimmerman AGAIN!
By CleanTV
Barack Obama’s ‘Justice’ Department has ignored the constitutionally binding innocent jury verdict and is attempting have George Zimmerman tried again. Never mind that this is putting the U.S. Constitution through the paper shredder. Never mind that this is blatantly DOUBLE JEOPARDY. What matters is that in the eyes of Eric Holder, George Zimmerman is among the most dangerous men. Why? Because he’s a LEGAL Hispanic U.S. citizen!
Sharpton Plans National Protests
The Rev. Al Sharpton is calling for a “Justice for Trayvon National Day of Action” on Saturday and say demonstrations are planned in more than 100 cities nationwide.
Saying there would not have been a trial in Florida without pressure from activists, Sharpton was confident that continued pressure would result in a federal civil rights case.
“When they’re telling you today, ‘I don’t know if they’re going to get a civil rights trial:’ We will. And we will get a civil trial,” Sharpton said on the “Tom Joyner Morning Show” on Monday morning. “What we’ve watched the last several weeks was not the system correcting itself, it was the people correcting the system. Now we’ve got to finish the job.”
National Action Network is organizing the protests at federal court buildings to press the Justice Department to bring a civil rights case against George Zimmerman, who was found not guilty in the death of teenager Trayvon Martin by a Florida jury on Saturday.
Sharpton said his National Action Network intends to keep the pressure on until a civil rights case is brought, insisting the protests will show the national anger over the verdict is not a “two- or three-day” thing.
Read More at Politico . By Tal Kopan.
Photo Credit: North Dallas Gazette (Creative Commons)
Case Against Zimmerman No Piece of Cake for DOJ
By Matt Cantor
Amid protests and a push from the NAACP , the Justice Department is looking into the prosecution of George Zimmerman on criminal civil rights grounds—but that would be a genuinely tough case to win, the AP explains. Says a former US attorney: “They’d have to show not only that the… …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Newser – Home
Rallies, marches follow Zimmerman verdict
Demonstrators from across the country are protesting a jury’s decision to clear George Zimmerman in the 2012 shooting death of an unarmed black teenager while the Justice Department considers whether to file criminal civil rights charges.
Rallies on Sunday attracted anywhere from a few dozen people to more than a thousand as demonstrators voiced their support for 17-year-old Trayvon Martin’s family — and decried Zimmerman’s not guilty verdict as a miscarriage of justice.
The NAACP and protesters are calling for federal civil rights charges against Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer who was acquitted Saturday in Martin’s death.
The Justice Department says it is looking into the case to determine whether federal prosecutors should file criminal civil rights charges now that Zimmerman has been acquitted in the state case.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox US News