Attorney General Eric Holder said in an interview with columnist and political pundit Juan Williams that he considers himself an activist, but there is nothing wrong in maintaining that role while also serving as the nation’s highest-ranking law enforcement agent.
“If you want to call me an activist attorney general, I will proudly accept that label,” he said, Mr. Williams wrote in an op-ed for The Hill. “Any attorney general who is not an activist is not doing his or her job. The responsibility of the attorney general is to change things [and] bring us closer to the ideals expressed in our founding documents.”
Mr. Holder made the statement in response to critics who’ve called him more a political activist for blacks and minorities than a keeper of the blind justice flame.
He also criticized the conservative majority on the Supreme Court and said he’s bothered by Chief Justice John Roberts’ claim that “the way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race,” Mr. Williams wrote.
“There are still [racial] issues we as a society are working our way through. And the lack of desire to do that, I think, undermines the ability that I think is inherent in the American people to make progress,” Mr. Holder told Mr. Williams. “But it also does not prepare us for demographic changes, the likes of which this country has never seen. The justice system is part of the larger society and to the extent there are racial issues we are still grappling with, its is not a shock that you’re are going to see them in the justice system.”
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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