WASHINGTON – In his first public remarks after announcing his resignation, Attorney General Eric Holder touted his civil rights accomplishments in front of the Congressional Black Caucus in Washington Friday.
His speech to the CBC Foundation’s Annual Legislative Conference had added significance since Holder is the nation’s first African-American attorney general.
Kicking off a discussion of voting rights, the attorney general said: “I’ve been privileged to work with many of you throughout my tenure as attorney general—which has not ended, let’s just make that clear. I woke up today and I was still the Attorney General of the United States.”
The remark drew laughs from a supportive audience, which included CBC Chairwoman Marcia Fudge, D-Ohio, and Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C. Holder, who will stay on until a successor is confirmed by the Senate, moved quickly to the serious stuff: the state of voting rights in the wake of last year’s Shelby County v. Holder Supreme Court decision. The attorney general said the ruling, easing restrictions on certain southern states, was “deeply misguided, flawed and unwise.”
In Shelby County (Alabama) v. Holder, the high Court struck down provisions of the 1965 Voting Rights Act that required states with histories of discrimination to obtain prior clearance from the federal government before changing their election laws or voting districts.
Holder, undeterred, said the Justice Department would work with civil rights groups to dispatch election monitors around the country. “We are not stopping because of Shelby County,” he said.
Civil rights, and particularly voting rights, have been a cornerstone of Holder’s attorney generalship since he was sworn in in 2009. When announcing Holder’s resignation Thursday, President Barack Obama said that “Eric’s proudest achievement … might be reinvigorating and restoring the core mission to what he calls ‘the conscience of the building’ — and that’s the Civil Rights Division.”
In that regard, Holder touted his department’s defense of early voting laws, court battles against voter ID laws and what he calls discriminatory redistricting of congressional lines. Also listed on his scorecard is his refusal to defend the Defense of Marriage Act, which denied federal recognition to same-sex marriages sanctioned by states. The Supreme Court overturned major tenets of the law. Holder also led a fight against mandatory minimum sentences for non-violent drug crimes, which some say unfairly targets young black men.
His priorities and tactics have consistently raised the ire of conservatives and his near six-year tenure has been controversial.
“Holder has placed ideological commitments over a commitment to the rule of law,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell in a statement after the resignation was announced Thursday, “These are not the qualities the American people look for in the nation’s highest law-enforcement official.”
Early in Obama’s first term, Holder told a gathering of Justice Department employees that the United States was “essentially a nation of cowards” when it came to race, a turn of phrase which predictably raised conservative hackles.
Holder suffered other controversies. Perhaps the biggest was the botched Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives sting operation known as “Fast and Furious,” in which an estimated 1,400 weapons went missing after being bought in Arizona by straw purchasers, including two guns that were found at the murder scene of a U.S. Border Patrol agent. Holder’s refusal to submit documents related to the ATF scandal earned him the dubious distinction of becoming the first sitting attorney general to be held in contempt of Congress.
Holder, a graduate of the Columbia Law School, says that the end of his stint at the Justice Department does not mark the end of his efforts to promote his civil rights agenda. “Although my time at the Justice Department will draw to a close in the coming months, once my successor is nominated and confirmed, I want you to know that my commitment to this work will never waiver.”
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