The Politicization of the Department of Justice Must be Stopped

J. Christian Adams has an excellent article discussing a recent speech by former Attorney General and RNLA Advisory Committee Member Michael Mukasey.  The article focuses on the extreme politicization of the Department of Justice under the Obama Administration.  

The key quote from Mukasey's speech according to Adams is:

One lesson to draw from all this is that personnel is policy. If you examine the resumés of people hired into the DOJ beginning in 2009, you will find that the governing credential of new hires was a history of support for left-leaning causes or membership in leftist organizations.

Adams goes on in detail to amplify Judge Mukasey’s point stating:

Mukasey is right.  Every single one of the attorney hires was a partisan or ideologue.  (You can access the PJ Media series here.)  Again, this outcome was no accident.  It was driven by a desire of those doing the attorney hiring to self-replicate their worldview inside DOJ.

These new hires are career civil service slots.  Contrary to the assumption of many who have read the Every Single One, these individuals cannot be easily dislodged, even by an aggressive attorney general in 2017.  Many hired in 2009 through 2014 will have already vested past their probationary period and will be all but impossible to remove.  Those still on probation will be defended from removal by nearly every layer of the DOJ bureaucracy.

This is not a problem just for conservatives or Republicans.  The Department of Justice’s own Inspector General recognized the problem. 

The Department of Justice Inspector General recommended that the Civil Rights Division change the criteria it uses to hire attorneys in light of the facts uncovered by PJ Media.  As noted by the Inspector General, Tom Perez (then the Assistant Attorney General) refused to follow the Inspector General’s suggestion.

Judge Mukasey and Mr. Adams have it right.  It is imperative to elect a President who will respect the rule of law and bring back an understanding that the administration of justice should not be partisan.