Obama’s Controversial Nominee For Labor Secretary To Be Voted On

Cato Institute attorney Ilya Shapiro wrote Tuesday about “Thomas Perez, the assistant attorney general for civil rights who personifies . . . this administration’s flouting of the rule of law.” As he notes, Perez “is due this week for a vote in the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee on his nomination to be Labor Secretary.”

Shapiro provides this “recap of Perez’s nefarious dealings” (drawing on the work of Quin Hillyer, who provides more detail at this link):

  • Interference with the Supreme Court case of Magner v. Gallagher, getting the City of St. Paul to dismiss its appeal to prevent what would’ve been a sharp . . . rebuke to the federal government regarding its use of “disparate impact” racial theories in housing policy . . . [CEI discussed Perez’s misuse of “disparate impact” law here]
  • Refusal to comply with subpoenas from the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights [which CEI discussed here];
  • Dismissal of the Justice Department’s already-won prosecution of the Black Panthers for voter intimidation during the 2008 election [which CEI discussed at this link];
  • . . . running a department dedicated to the proposition that voting rights and other civil rights law don’t protect white people [CEI discussed an example here];
  • Willfully misleading and lying to Congress under oath several times [D.C. District Court Judge Reggie Walton said he made false claims in response to queries about the black panther case];
  • Racial abuse of the New York fire department, to the detriment of public safety and qualified minority applicants;
  • Hiring for “career” (non-political appointee) slots only attorneys who have demonstrable left-wing credentials—making Alberto Gonzales’s politicized-hiring foibles look like the model of civil service administration [see examples here];
  • Trampling on religious liberties to the point the Supreme Court unanimously rejected his arguments in Hosanna-Tabor v. EEOC regarding the “ministerial exception” to employment laws;
  • Conducting government business from a personal email account as many as 1,200 times (!) and now refusing to comply with congressional subpoenas to release those emails. [CEI lawyers have repeatedly uncovered such abuses, and the use of false-identity alias email addresses, by Obama administration officials, as you can see here and here].

CEI earlier discussed the Magner case and why the Obama administration’s position in that case could undermine the stability of the financial system and cause future financial meltdowns. (CEI joined in an amicus brief opposing the Obama administration’s position, in the Supreme Court). It also highlighted the Obama administration’s (and Perez’s) massive, ethically dubious payoff to the City of Saint Paul to drop the case. Earlier, CEI discussed the Obama administration’s extreme position in the Supreme Court’s Hosanna-Tabor case and how it would have undermined First Amendment freedoms, religious autonomy and the separation of church and state. CEI also examined the Justice Department’s politicized hiring during the Obama administration.