You don’t need to look very far to see the ways in which BushCo wishes to exert its agenda on this mostly unsuspecting country by whatever means necessary. We already know all about PlameGate (where fostering the right political agenda is more important than keeping the identity of one of our covert spies secret) and the US Attorney scandal (where causing Democrats consternation matters more than actually upholding US law). Now, in an article in today’s New York Times, we have the Justice Department redefining what “Civil Rights” are:
- Intervening in federal court cases on behalf of religion-based groups like the Salvation Army that assert they have the right to discriminate in hiring in favor of people who share their beliefs even though they are running charitable programs with federal money.
- Supporting groups that want to send home religious literature with schoolchildren; in one case, the government helped win the right of a group in Massachusetts to distribute candy canes as part of a religious message that the red stripes represented the blood of Christ.
- Vigorously enforcing a law enacted by Congress in 2000 that allows churches and other places of worship to be free of some local zoning restrictions. The division has brought more than two dozen lawsuits on behalf of churches, synagogues and mosques.
All of this comes, as one might expect, at the expense of what the Civil Rights Office in the Justice Department was meant to do, actually protect the rights of minorities and women who will otherwise be discriminated against at will. Not only that, but like in the USA scandal, career civil rights lawyers are being pushed aside for lawyers that come from religious schools whose missions are to prosecute religious cases.
All of that rings superbly foul to me. This is the problem with the Bush Administration. They have an agenda and they will stop at nothing to push it. Everything is political, and everything is ideological. Very much uncool.
The fact of the matter is that this is an abuse of the system. There are other means in place to protect religious freedom. Part of the article also mentions that some of what they’re trying to sue for isn’t even covered under current law. This just just one more affront to minorities and women, and it’s one of those things we almost feel powerless to stop.
P.S. - Isn’t the justice department supposed to be a non-partisan servant of the country and its constitution?
Ms. [Rigel, a University of Missouri law professor] Oliveri and several other law professors said placement officers and faculty at their schools found that graduates seeking work at the Justice Department had a better chance by cleansing their résumés of liberal affiliations while emphasizing ties to the Federalist Society, a Washington conservative group, or membership in a religious fellowship.
This, my friends, is the honest to god new life in America, where the color of the skin and the content of your character do not matter, nor do any practical qualifications. All that matters is that you have the right bona fides and promise to work all the right cases. Sick.
