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 at the U.S. Justice Department Far-Right-Wing Dream Team is Taking Over All Top Positions Grave Threats to Americans' Fundamental Liberties Anticipated |
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Compiled by GayToday Courtesy: People for the American Way
The report released highlights some of the appointees to important Justice Department positions, discusses the relevance of the Federalist Society affiliation of many of those officials, considers the impact of John Ashcroft and his legal team on the federal judiciary and thus on American law and society, and reviews Department of Justice action and inaction under Ashcroft in more than a dozen policy areas. Neas said that Ashcroft's role in the administration's plans to pack the Supreme Court and federal judiciary with right-wing ideologues could be his most lasting legacy. "If Ashcroft and his allies in the White House and Senate are successful, the federal courts could turn back the clock on 70 years of social justice progress," he said. "If senators don't take a stand, we'll find ourselves right back in an era when states' rights trump civil rights, and we'll lose First Amendment freedoms, reproductive rights, environmental protection, and so much more." Introduction: When President-elect George W. Bush announced that former U.S. Senator John Ashcroft would be his nominee for U.S. Attorney General, People For the American Way helped lead a coalition of extraordinary breadth and depth opposing his confirmation. Based on Ashcroft's record as a senator and as Missouri state attorney general and governor, public interest advocates believed that Ashcroft was a right-wing ideologue who should not be entrusted with overseeing the enforcement of laws and the protection of constitutional guarantees affecting civil rights, civil liberties, religious liberty, reproductive rights, environmental protection, and more. Six months into Ashcroft's tenure, it is clear that many of the concerns raised by public interest groups and hundreds of thousands of Americans were well warranted. The soothing rhetoric Ashcroft employed at his confirmation hearings continues, but cannot hide the continued aggressive promotion of the far-right legal and ideological agenda that has marked his career in public office. The strategy of putting a moderate face on a far-from-moderate agenda makes Ashcroft in some ways emblematic of the Bush administration writ large, which has clearly internalized the advice of Bush campaign adviser and former Christian Coalition president Ralph Reed, who has urged his fellow Religious Right activists to shun harsh language in order to achieve their goals. At the time of Ashcroft's nomination, People For the American Way President Ralph G. Neas criticized Bush for choosing someone with a voting record to the right of Sen. Jesse Helms (according to 1997-1998 voting records analysis from the nonpartisan National Journal.) Said Neas, "On the key criterion of commitment to equal justice under the law, Ashcroft's record simply does not measure up to the standards the American people have a right to expect from the person entrusted with protecting their rights and their Constitution. John Ashcroft's record shows him to be a man who has not earned the people's high trust but has used his power and position to advance a far right agenda at the expense of Americans' fundamental rights and liberties." Ashcroft has occasionally disappointed his allies on the far right, for example, by moving in one visible case to uphold federal law protecting clinics from anti-abortion protestors and defending a Department of Transportation affirmative action program. But there have been many more troubling actions or lack of action on a range of issues, including civil rights, civil liberties, gun control, the federal judiciary, church-state separation, and legal and constitutional interpretation. And what is already a poor record is nearly certain to get worse. Indeed, in his first months in office, Ashcroft has assembled the radical right's Dream Team, giving Religious Right leaders and their political allies reason to believe that their all-out efforts on behalf of George W. Bush have paid off. Many of these appointees are just settling into office, so their full impact on public policy has not yet been felt. This is particularly true about the top priority of the Bush administration and its right-wing allies - dominance of the Supreme Court and the entire federal judiciary by right-wing ideologues. Members of the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies, whose legal philosophy is represented on the current Supreme Court by Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, play central roles in the Justice Department and White House in the process by which federal judicial nominees are selected. It is in this arena that the Bush administration, if successful, will have the longest and most detrimental effect on American law and society, potentially overturning seven decades of social justice progress and blocking progressive initiatives for the next generation. This report will highlight some of the appointees to important Justice Department positions, discuss the relevance of the Federalist Society affiliation of many of those nominees, consider the impact of Ashcroft and his legal team on the federal judiciary, and briefly review Department of Justice actions under Ashcroft in more than a dozen policy areas. The Justice Department Team In addition to Ashcroft himself, who is a member of the Federalist Society (see below), many high-level political positions within the Justice Department have been filled with ideological warriors from the far right. The impact of these appointments will continue to grow as they implement the administration's agenda in the coming months and years. Some of the key members of the team that are either in place now or nominated and awaiting confirmation are: Solicitor General Ted Olson, the lawyer who argued on Bush's behalf before the Supreme Court last fall, was, until April, a member of the Federalist Society's Board of Visitors and one of the nation's premier legal advocates for a variety of right-wing causes. Olson represented Reagan during the Iran-Contra hearings and is a close friend and associate of Ken Starr. During Olson's confirmation hearings, questions rose about his role in the American Spectator's anti-Clinton activities and in Olson's truthfulness in answering questions.
Assistant Attorney General for Environment and Natural Resources Thomas L. Sansonetti is a Federalist Society member who has been a lobbyist for coal mining operations and other industries seeking access to public lands. He served in the Interior Department under Secretary Don Hodel (former president of the Christian Coalition) and as Legislative Director for then Congressman Craig Thomas, R-Wyo., now a U.S. Senator. He is still listed as a member of the Defenders of Property Rights Lawyers Network. Principal Deputy Solicitor General Paul Clement is a Federalist Society member and former chief counsel for the Senate Subcommittee on the Constitution, Federalism and Property Rights chaired by then-Senator Ashcroft. Associate Deputy Attorney General R. Ted Cruz is an attorney who assisted in preparing the briefs for then-Gov. George W. Bush before the U.S. Supreme Court and the Florida Supreme Court. He was a domestic policy advisor to the Bush-Cheney campaign, and served as a law clerk to Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist. Cruz is a member of the Federalist Society. Administrator, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention J. Robert Flores was the vice president and senior counsel for the National Law Center for Children and Families, a lobbying group that strongly supported Child Online Protection Act (COPA), an Internet censorship bill that has since been overturned in federal court and is now before the Supreme Court. Flores worked in the Justice Department under the first Bush administration and the Clinton administration, from 1989 to 1997, serving in the Justice Department's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section of the Criminal Division. In 1997, Flores joined former Attorney General Edwin Meese and eleven right-wing "pro-family" groups to protest what they claim was a drop in obscenity prosecutions under President Clinton. (This summary does not include many Federalist Society lawyers and right-wing activists who are taking over important policymaking positions below the sub-cabinet level.) |
