Eric Holder: School Fights are "Relatively Minor Transgressions"

    Wednesday, Attorney General Eric Holder gave a speech at Frederick Douglas High School in Baltimore, MD.   I wrote about the announcement of the appearance at The Weekly Standard earlier in the day.  The event was billed as "Solutions to Enhance School Climate/Improve Discipline Policies and Practices".  Holder was there with Education Secretary Arne Duncan as part of President Obama's anti-gun violence initiative launched in response to the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.
    Part of the president's plan was to "disseminate best practices on school discipline policies and to help school districts develop and equitably implement their policies."  In fleshing out this proposal, Holder made a rather strange, even alarming, statement:

As it stands, far too many students across the country are diverted from the path to success by unnecessarily harsh discipline policies and practices that exclude them from school for minor infractions.  During critical years that are proven to impact a student’s later chances for success, alarming numbers of young people are suspended, expelled, or even arrested for relatively minor transgressions like school uniform violations, schoolyard fights, or showing “disrespect” by laughing in class.

    Holder's formulation conflates "schoolyard fights" with school uniforms violations and laughing in class, clearly a false equivalence.  While the latter two items might be characterized as "relatively minor transgressions," does a physical altercation really fit the bill?  Fights do not begin spontaneously - usually there is an aggressor, which probably indicates an assault and battery has occurred.  Certainly not all fighting in school rises to the level of arrest, but shouldn't suspensions or even expulsion be on the table?  And has anyone ever really been arrested, or even expelled, for a uniform violation or laughing in class?  Unlikely.
    Why would Holder muddy the waters in this way?  How does preventing violence in schools square with downplaying the seriousness of... violence in schools?  As I pointed out in my Weekly Standard post, the whole Baltimore event seemed predicated on the idea that unfair, discriminatory, and ineffective school discipline could lead to gun violence.  If Holder truly subscribes to that line of thinking, he should stop trying to get schools to go easy on violent offenders by comparing them to the merely disrespectful and dress code violators.

AG Holder's Non-Answer on Warrants for Email

    At a Congressional hearing on May 15, Attorney General Eric Holder faced some rather hostile questions from lawmakers regarding recent Obama administration scandals, such as the IRS targeting of conservative non-profits, the Justice Department acquisition of Associated Press phone records, and Benghazi. However, about three hours into the hearing, a relatively friendly questioner, Susan DelBene (D-WA), inquired about a recent report from the ACLU concerning FBI documents that suggest that the FBI does not need a warrant to obtain access to at least some private emails.  The attorney general's answer was barely an answer at all, despite The Hill's assertion that "Holder backs warrant requirement for most email searches":

Attorney General Eric Holder said on Wednesday that the Justice Department will likely support legislation requiring law enforcement officers to obtain a warrant before accessing private online messages, such as emails or Facebook messages.
"It is something that I think the Department will support," Holder said in testimony before the House Judiciary Committee.
He urged Congress to exempt "certain very limited circumstances" such as civil investigations.
"But the more general notion of having a warrant to obtain the content of communications from a service provider is something that we support," Holder said.

    However, The Hill's article actually reports Holder's answer to DelBene's follow up question.  Here is the full exchange, beginning with DelBene's original question regarding obtaining certain emails without a warrant:

    Perhaps The Hill was simply being kind to the attorney general by not printing his initial answer given the lack of coherence.  Whatever enthusiasm Mr. Holder showed for updating legislation, he was clearly not anxious to surrender the freedom the FBI and the Justice Department currently assume the right to exercise.  This non-answer combined with the non-apology for the seizure of AP phone records cannot give privacy advocates a good feeling about this administration's view of government's limits on its investigative powers.

Eric Holder's Chutzpah

    When Vice President Joe Biden lets loose with one of his infamous quotables, such as yesterday's "a depression for millions and millions", one gets the sense that many in the administration are listening with a hand over their eyes, slowly shaking their heads.  However, when Eric Holder plays the high school troublemaker who is facing the teacher with an innocent look, inwardly thumbing his nose, those same administration members have a hand over their mouths suppressing a "pppbbbbbtttttttt!" with an admiring look on their faces.  After yesterday's overwhelming House vote (bi-partisan!) finding Holder in contempt of Congress, Fox News reports Holder's reaction:

“Today’s vote is the regrettable culmination of what became a misguided and politically motivated investigation during an election year,” Holder said afterward. “By advancing it over the past year and a half, Congressman Issa and others have focused on politics over public safety.”

The "past year and a half" and "during an election year"?  Yes, because Holder and his Justice Department have managed to stall and deceive and stonewall so long.  And "public safety"?  That's the especially galling statement considering Fast and Furious resulted in the death of a border agent and over 300 others, and is still responsible for 2,000 missing firearms, presumably in the hands of Mexican drug gangs.  Since the resolution of this issue quite possibly depends on Holder's Justice Department investigating itself, don't look for answers any time soon.  Just as in high school, the troublemakers tend to protect their own.