By: Donald V. Watkins
Copyrighted and Published on March 30, 2023
An Editorial Opinion
Americans of color, women, children, LGBTQIA Americans, and the elderly are losing every legal right they have won in Congress and the courts since 1865. At the same time, our children are being slaughtered in public and private schools across America, with no federal law enforcement solution in sight.
Why is U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland afraid to stand up and fight hard for us? Why is he always crying whenever his Department of Justice handlers trot him out for a speech or statement on TV?
Merrick Garland is absolutely the wrong person for the Attorney General's job at this critical moment in our nation's history. If we needed a bourbon-drinking, martini-sipping friend to pontificate about esoteric things during "Happy Hour" in Washington, Garland would be our guy.
But, here's our real situation: President Joe Biden is old, weak, tired, and senile. What is worse, Merrick Garland is weak, tired, and unfocused.
For example, more than two years after Biden assumed office as president, Merrick Garland still employs avowed Trump loyalists and modern-day white supremacists in key DOJ positions in Alabama and other Deep South states. This faux pas is inexcusable.
Because Biden is the weakest president since Herbert Hoover, he needs a Pit Bull as his Attorney General. Merrick Garland is NOT that guy. Whenever Garland appears in public, it feels like he is getting ready to bolt from the room for a cocktail party.
Donald Trump was right about one thing: The president of the United States is the chief law enforcement official in the federal law enforcement apparatus. The president appoints the Attorney General as a member of the executive branch of government to oversee the day-to-day administration of this apparatus.
The Attorney General is a cabinet member just like the 23 other cabinet members who serve at the pleasure of the president.
Nothing in the U.S. Constitution places the Attorney General Merrick Garland beyond the supervisory reach of the president. Whoever serves in this Cabinet post is directly answerable to the President.
The Attorney General's job in the federal system is to advance and protect the president's public policy initiatives using the federal legal apparatus to achieve this result. This, Merrick Garland is NOT doing.
The Attorney General also has a concomitant duty to enforce the labyrinth of more than 8,000 federal civil and criminal laws in a fair and just way. Merrick Garland is failing in this responsibility, as well.
Wall Street companies and their CEOs who commit crimes go free, while Main Street criminals get hammered and go to jail. Garland has sanctioned this two-tier system of justice on numerous occasions.
President Biden can replace Merrick Garland at-will, and Biden should do so immediately, while he still has lucid moments.
Right now, we need a real warrior in the Attorney General's job. Americans of color, women, children, LGBTQIA Americans, and the elderly are catching pure hell. The MAGA crowd is running roughshod over these groups in the "Red" states.
Merrick Garland is an Attorney General "in-hiding" while we are being forced back into pre-1865 living conditions. This retrogression isn't working too well for us!
Unfortunately, this is the cold, hard, truth.