OPINION:
Your pointed editorial “No black hole for Black Panthers” (Comment & Analysis, Tuesday) was spoiled by the final sentence: “If the attorney general continues to stonewall transparency, it looks like he’s hiding something.”
It was noted early in the editorial that the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights has tried for 16 months to get information from the Justice Department on the New Black Panther case. It has been stalled throughout by claims that the deliberative-process privilege obviates need for a transparent administration. The Justice Department’s withholding of employees of the Voting Rights Section from providing information shows without a shadow of doubt that Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. has been hiding pertinent information for well more than a year.
The editorial should have concluded with the sentence, “The Justice Department no longer lives up to its name; it is well overdue for a change of leadership.”
STANLEY ORMAN
Rockville, Md.
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