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What Biden originally planned would be announced on Christmas Day, carried over into the New Year. This breaks with recent standards for a new president to make the attorney general one of his top cabinet choices. It also increased calls for Biden to tackle issues of diversity and racial injustice through his selection to head the department.
Not only is this the most important job left for Biden, but the Attorney General also has jurisdiction over many of the issues that fuel racial injustice.
Tensions are particularly high since, despite all the pressure from outside groups, three of the best remaining leaders at the head of the justice ministry are all white, and two of them are men.
Transition officials told CNN they were in regular contact with civil rights groups about their selection of attorneys general and the Department of Justice more broadly, and that they value their views. and their advice on both subjects.
The promotion of diversity comes from a large roster of civil rights activists from organizations such as the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), the National Association of Elected and Appointed Latin American Representatives (NALEO) and the ‘National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Officials (NOBLE). All told CNN they were in constant contact with Biden’s transition team to release hundreds of recommendations from people they had reviewed for administration positions.
“We recommend over 80 people for various (managerial) positions” at the Department of Justice and the Secret Service among other law enforcement agencies, NOBLE president Lynda Williams told CNN.
Williams acknowledged that the next Attorney General may not be and need not be a person of color, but if he is, then that will be “a bonus.”
Ultimately, Williams said the nominee needs to understand “that they represent something bigger than themselves” and that there are major issues regarding race in this country, “even if that doesn’t. not hold on to their feet “.
The Reverend Al Sharpton, founder of the National Action Network, is among the most important voices for culture change at DOJ. During a meeting in early December with Biden, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris and their team, Sharpton expressed his preference for the next attorney general to be black and have experience in the federal government with a focus on issues of civil rights.
Sharpton, however, appeared to be nodding implicitly at Jones recently when he followed comments in mid-December calling for a black attorney general saying he could also accept a white candidate with “a proven track record in civil rights who will manage this heightened racist sectarian atmosphere. ”
Jones was the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama under President Bill Clinton when he successfully prosecuted members of the Ku Klux Klan who were responsible for the bombing of 16th Street Baptist Church in 1963.
A year of conflict
After a year marked by protests and racial strife, calls for federal charges and investigations into the police shootings that sparked widespread protests this summer have gone largely unanswered. Just days after George Floyd’s death, then Attorney General William Barr said Floyd’s death “led home” to a long-standing collapse of the criminal justice system, and Barr said vowed to “find constructive solutions” in the weeks and months to come “so that Mr. Floyd’s death will not be in vain. ”
But few reforms have taken place.
This investigation, along with several other investigations launched this summer, will likely be among the first problems many expect the next attorney general to face immediately.
Long-standing issues
The Justice Department sparked further outcry last week when it announced that there was insufficient evidence for federal charges related to the police shooting of Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old black child in Cleveland. who was holding a pellet gun in 2014 when he was shot by an officer who believed it was a real pistol.
This case is a reminder that much of the conflict around police brutality against minorities predates the Trump administration, and that DOJ staff have been pushing for internal change for years.
Darlene Brooks has worked at the Justice Department for 33 years, and she says it will take more than a few diverse voices to change the white-centric culture that has been embedded in many administrations.
“Even with Attorney General (Eric) Holder, I was excited for him, but it felt like it ended there,” Brooks said. “If the department is riddled with career people who don’t embrace diversity and just do a paper exercise, then it’s futile and there is no change.”
Brooks is chair of the DOJ section of the Blacks in Government group, where she leads a team that advocates for equal opportunity and professional development for black government employees. Brooks hopes the new leadership in the Justice Department will introduce greater diversity in the workforce, place a renewed emphasis on civil rights, and prioritize police reform.
“It’s not about defunding or taking money from the police, that’s how people continue to misinterpret it,” Brooks said. “It’s really about getting into these police departments and educating their practices.”
Restoring a commitment to equal justice
To do so, Sharpton said it was incumbent on the federal government to immediately take the lead.
“The reason we were unable to deal with local law enforcement and prosecutors is because of the intrinsic relationship between the local police involved in these situations and the prosecutors in those counties,” Sharpton told CNN. “Someone who is sensitive to this understands why the federal government and the Department of Justice need to step in. … So there is a sensitivity practice and an experienced practice that people of color could bring that were totally absent at the over the past four years. ”
Kristen Clarke, chair of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under the Act, said the Justice Department should prioritize revitalizing federal civil rights enforcement, law enforcement over voting rights, police brutality, and educational affairs that require scrutiny.
“I think this is one of the most important decisions President-elect Biden will have to make in finding the right attorney general, who can restore a commitment to equal justice before the law for all, who can make racial justice and civil rights protection a summit These are extremely important principles and values that the country currently needs for its next Attorney General, so I’m glad the next administration isn’t rushing to announce a decision and be really thoughtful and careful in deciding who she nominates for this important position, ”said Clarke.
National Urban League president Marc Morial was at the December 8 virtual meeting with Biden, Harris and six other civil rights groups. “We have generally talked about the diversity of Cabinet and the need for a maximum number of African Americans in Cabinet, so that the President can be successful by emphasizing racial justice and addressing these issues.” , Morial said.
“Most importantly, the management team is diverse and firmly committed to civil rights and racial justice. In this environment which goes beyond the simple attorney general and passes to the other key position. President-elect Biden has made it clear: we, and this goes without reservation, that racial justice will be part of everything he does. Racial justice will be part of everything he does, whether in agriculture or trade, whether it is economic policy, ”continued.
“We know that the tip of the spear is the relationship between the police and the community. This police problem will not stop. The relationship between the police and the black communities is systematically broken and taking the lives of people. “
CNN’s Dan Merica contributed to this report.
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