Legal News

IG Report on DOJ: Greenpeace Bad, Federalist Society Good

By Dan Slater

This just in: A report from the inspector general — the result of an investigation into DOJ hiring practices over the last six years — alleges that “many qualified candidates” were rejected from an elite recruitment program because of perceived liberal bias. Here’s a story from the NYT’s Eric Lichtblau, and here’s an AP report. Click here for the 115-page report.

The hiring practices, which reportedly took place under both AG Ashcroft and AG Gonzales, “constituted misconduct and also violated the department’s policies and civil service law that prohibit discrimination in hiring based on political or ideological affiliations,” the report says. The report singled out two Gonzales aides for criticism.

The reports finds that applications that contained what were seen as “leftist commentary” or “buzz words” like environmental and social justice were often grounds for rejecting applicants. Membership in liberal organizations like the American Constitution Society, Greenpeace, or the Poverty and Race Research Action Council were also seen as negative marks. Meanwhile, affiliation with the Federalist Society, a prominent conservative group, was viewed positively.

Representative and House Judiciary Committee head John Conyers Jr. told the NYT that, “When it comes to the hiring of nonpartisan career attorneys, our system of justice should not be corrupted by partisan politics. It appears the politicization at Justice was so pervasive that even interns had to pass a partisan litmus test.”

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on June 24, 2008 (boomark / email).