Norton applauds selection of Attorney General

Washington, D.C. - Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) offered high praise for President-elect Barack Obama's nomination of Washingtonian Eric Holder as U.S. Attorney General, the first African American nominee to that post."The president has chosen one of us, a Washingtonian, whose integrity and excellence as a lawyer and a citizen we know first hand from the high quality of his service in this city as U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia," Norton said in a news release.

"Eric will bring a greater understanding of the U.S. Attorney General office than any nominee in memory," she said. "It would be difficult to imagine a better nominee for the difficult period ahead."

Holder, a long-time D.C. resident, was selected as the first African American U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia by a process Norton initiated when then-President Bill Clinton extended senatorial courtesy to her to name specific federal officials usually selected by senators of the same party as the president.

Norton established the D.C. Judicial Nominating Commission, named Pauline Schneider, a past chair of the District of Columbia Bar Association, as chair, and chose Holder, then a Superior Court Judge from three names submitted to her by the Judicial Nominating Commission, following its comprehensive outreach and investigation of applicants.

Civil rights leaders across the nation called Holder's nomination a "bold choice" for prospective upgrades in civil rights and criminal justice laws that have long hindered Black progress.

"Eric brings nearly three decades of public service to this enormous task and will usher in a new appreciation for civil rights and dignity and respect for individual liberties," said Harvard Law professor Charles Ogletree. "I applaud this decision and so should anyone deeply concerned about the fair and rational application of the rule of law."

NNPA editor in chief Hazel Trice Edney reported this week that the slot of attorney general oversees the U.S. Department of Justice. The DOJ deals with a variety of issues, including public policies under the Civil Rights Division that disparately affect Black people. They include affirmative action, racial profiling, police misconduct, hate crimes, judicial discretion in mandatory minimum sentences, the death penalty and other sentencing disparities, voting rights and redistricting reviews.

Obama also nominated arch rival Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton to become the nation's top diplomat as secretary of state; Gen. James L. Jones, a former NATO commander, his national security adviser; and Robert M. Gates to remain secretary of defense.

Holder, who would be the first African-American to serve as attorney general, comes one year after New York activist Al Sharpton led a march of thousands around the Justice Department, decrying policies that have failed to fairly deal with police misconduct and hate crimes.

Holder, whose pending appointment must first be confirmed by the U. S. Senate, would not only be the first African-American to serve as attorney general, but is viewed as a fair-minded former judge whose civil rights record reputedly bespeaks balance, fairness and equity.

Legal experts who deal in racial justice say these are the qualities that have been missing in the Bush Justice Department, largely characterized by decisions made by Republican political appointees viewed as cold to civil rights laws. A widely held complaint has been that Bush administrative appointees have often undermined opinions and legal advice of lawyers - especially in the civil rights division.

"The last eight years have probably been the most disastrous for the Department of Justice in its history. They have been catastrophic for the Civil Rights Division," says John Payton, president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund. "The mission of the Civil Rights Division has been literally abandoned; its career attorneys forced out or demoralized, its leadership compromised by political considerations. In many important ways, we have not really had a Civil Rights Division for the past eight years." Holder could help fix that, says Payton.

"The mission of the next attorney general will be to restore - not just the integrity of the Department of Justice but its very soul," says Payton. "Eric Holder is a spectacular pick."

From NNPA and District Chronicles staff.