Illegal Hiring Practices at DOJ Honors Program

[Rhymnoceros]

Crazy.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/25/washington/24cnd-justice.html?hp

My favorite part:
"Applications that contained what were seen as “leftist commentary” or “buzz words” like environmental and social justice were often grounds for rejecting applicants, according to e-mails reviewed by the inspector general’s office. Membership in liberal organizations like the American Constitution Society, Greenpeace, or the Poverty and Race Research Action Council were also seen as negative marks."

What sort of a commie would mention social justice anyway? Clearly not lawyer material.

EDIT: Fixed URL.

[goaliechica]

Oh wow, so it's official now.

Yeah, it's pretty ridiculous. 

[non parata est]

Yeah, I saw this on ABA's Blawg this morning, and it just hit ATL about an hour ago.  Crazy stuff.

[Resident CLS Troll]

My guess is that there will be a whole lot of outrage and then nothing will happen.  Story of the last who knows how many years.

I imagine that this creates something of a vacuum in DC for those who lean left and want to go into civil rights law.  Next summer should be a great time to be in DC for 2L's who want to split between a firm and DoJ civil rights division.

::coughs::

[goaliechica]

My guess is that there will be a whole lot of outrage and then nothing will happen.  Story of the last who knows how many years.

I imagine that this creates something of a vacuum in DC for those who lean left and want to go into civil rights law.  Next summer should be a great time to be in DC for 2L's who want to split between a firm and DoJ civil rights division.

::coughs::

 

Good to know.

There was a good discussion at the ACS convention two weeks ago about what should be done. The general consensus was that actual illegal activity should certainly be followed up on, but that it wasn't a good general principle to have the next administration do too thorough an investigation of the previous administration's DOJ, because it would make it too hard for the AG to do his or her job without being left open to partisan attacks after the fact. Or something like that. It made sense when the smart people said it.

[Resident CLS Troll]

What legal remedies are actually available in the first place?

[goaliechica]

What legal remedies are actually available in the first place?

No clue 

[non parata est]

Here's the actual report if anyone's curious.

http://www.usdoj.gov/oig/special/s0806/final.pdf

The most revealing charts start at around page 20.  It's really quite... blood-boiling, I think is the correct term.

[Resident CLS Troll]

I would have thought that surprising was the correct word.

No wait, I mean the opposite of surprising.  Nevermind.

[Ninja1]

You mean the Bush admin and their DOJ did something illegal? Did not see that one coming...