Uncivil Rights

It was a week filled with remarkable news events. We saw the continuation of a Russian incursion into Crimea and the Ukraine as western powers struggle with the economic and political realities that complicate our world. We saw the vanishing of an airliner with no explanation. We saw the annual clown show known as the Conservative Political Action Convention where noted conservatives contradict each other for three days and attempt to convince us the world is about to end because of Obamacare. We also saw reports that the national deficit has been reduced to George W. Bush levels; you know, when Dick Cheney said “deficits don’t matter”. We saw the rate of uninsured (health insurance) Americans fall. Bad news and good news was everywhere. But for me the most significant news event of the week took place in the United States Senate. Last week the U.S. Senate failed to confirm the nomination of Debo Adegbile to the post of Head of the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice, ending his chances of ever holding that position. That may have been a faint blip on your radar screen, or something you never heard about at all. For me, that single event represented everything that is wrong and dysfunctional about our government today and many people in government who fail us on a daily basis.

Let me tell you who Debo Adegbile is before I describe the horrible act that got him disqualified to fight for civil rights in the DOJ. Adegbile is a 47 year old man who was raised by a single mother in New York City. He was a child actor for a time and worked on the PBS Network show Sesame Street. He completed High School then earned his college degree from Connecticut College in 1991. He went on to law school and earned his law degree from New York University, School of Law in 1994. During law school days he worked as a legal assistant for several large law firms in New York. After attaining his Law Degree he was offered a job at the last firm he worked for and became a full-time litigator. He remained at the firm for seven years before leaving to become assistant counsel for the NAACP’s Legal Defense and Education Fund. While there, Debo Adegbile argued twice before the U.S. Supreme Court. In 2013 he joined the staff of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary as Senior Counsel. His wife Susan and he live in New York with their two daughters. By all accounts Adegbile has distinguished himself as an outstanding person and an accomplished legal talent- one who has conducted his life without blemish. Who among us would not be proud to have him as a son?

As part of his distinguished professional career, Debo did one thing that many of our upstanding Senators could not stomach. And for that one thing Adegbile was denied the chance to put his considerable talents to use on behalf of the American people. While at the NAACP he worked on a legal team to appeal the death sentence of Mumia Abu-Jamal. Who is he, you ask? Abu-Jamal (aka Wesley Cook) is a man convicted for murder in the 1981 killing of Philadelphia policemen Daniel Faulkner (thirteen years before Debo graduated from law school). The NAACP was already involved with the case when Adegbile joined the team. The purpose of their appeal was not to question Abu-Jamal’s guilt, for he most surely did murder Faulkner- but it was to vacate the death sentence on the grounds that a Constitutional error had been made in the sentencing phase when the trial judge gave improper sentencing instructions to the jury. As it turned out the appeal was successful, and The US Supreme Court ordered that the Circuit Court’s decision to vacate the death sentence was correct. Abu-Jamal will remain incarcerated for life for the murder of Officer Faulkner.

All in all, these activities seem like honorable acts conducted by honorable people who were upholding their oaths as attorneys to practice the law to the best of their abilities. The American Bar Association’s cannons of ethical practice for attorneys requires that an attorney must provide all accused persons with the best defense they can, regardless of their personal beliefs about their client, or their guilt. Those same cannons declare that all defendants are entitled to the best defense possible. By the way, those rights are also guaranteed by the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution. But the US Senate didn’t see it that way. President Obama’s nominee to head the Dept. of Justice’s Civil Rights Division was defeated by a procedural vote (another filibuster) 47-52. If you are waiting for the other shoe to drop- like there is some other reason lurking in his background, there isn’t one. The only reason Adegbile was not confirmed is because he was one of the attorneys who represented a cop-killer.  

I’m reminded of a scene from the remake of the movie Cape Fear. In the movie, a vicious and sadistic man named Max Cady is released from prison after serving his time for a brutal rape and assault. Upon his release, he tracks down is own lawyer to harass and eventually kill the lawyer because Cady found out his own lawyer buried evidence that might have cleared him at trial. But the lawyer knew Cady was quite guilty of the heinous crime and ignored his oath to give Cady the best legal defense. When Cady confronts his old attorney, the attorney asks him why he doesn’t go after the judge or the prosecutor instead of the man who defended him. Cady answered, “they were just doin’ right by their job.” In the case of Debo Adegbile, he was just doin’ right by his job, but today’s ugly politics cost him and the country quite a lot.

There is nothing in the character or skill level of Adegbile that should have prevented him from heading the Civil Rights Division of the DOJ. The mere fact that he defended an unpopular criminal was used against him. This vote to disqualify him says a great deal about where we are in the ability or willingness of the Congress to actually govern. It also says something about our national character. My criticism applies to both Democrats and Republicans. Seven Democrats voted with all the Republicans to block the nomination. I expect every Republican to vote “NO” on every Obama nomination or suggested legislative initiative. It is not a matter of political opinion- it is just a fact that they vote “NO” on everything this President does or wants. You can count on it 100% of the time- they have abdicated all responsibility to govern, and are avowed only to get in the way of governance. But I was shocked to see seven Dems join in- until I saw who they were. These Democratic Senators who failed us are all coming up for election in 2014 or in the next election in 2016. They voted against this man because they were afraid, and in doing so violated their own oath of office. That is the power of today’s politics -over what is clearly right.

I will tell you, there was pressure on the Senate. The widow of the slain policemen lobbied the Senate to believe that his participation in the legal representation of Abu-Jamal should “disqualify him” from holding any public position in the justice system-  a position formed by grief and vengeance, not logic or law. The Fraternal Order of Police, the world’s largest organization of law enforcement officials, for similar reasons,  threatened any Senator who supported the nomination with a full-fledged, well financed campaign against them if they voted to confirm. Can you imagine the chilling effect this could have on a sitting Senator. And yet that is precisely why they ask us to elect them; to make the tough calls, to do the right thing, and to uphold the Constitution.

John Roberts the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court once defended a mass murderer who killed eight people, and he did it pro bono (no fee). No one held that against him, nor should they have. Some of our greatest public servants and leaders were lawyers who defended despicable people in their careers. Only now, in this poisoned environment does it count against a talented attorney. Is it because the nomination came from Barack Obama? Is it because this position deals with civil rights? Is it because the victim in the defendant’s crime was a cop?  It is likely all of those issues came into play. We live in a time when the rhetoric of governing (at the campaigning stage or the office holding stage) is far removed from the reality of governing. How many times have we listened to candidates, particularly conservative candidates or politicians, wave the flag and urge us to let them “defend the Constitution”. They would have us believe the Constitution has been tarnished and abandoned by liberals and the current Administration. And yet when they see a case regarding the Constitutional Rights they claim to revere being properly exercised in the way  intended by the founders, they punish the practitioner of the law that provided those civil rights, because they didn’t like the person the rights were being applied to. I understand why Republicans punished Adegbile- they will oppose anyone Mr. Obama nominates, to confound the Government because of their blatant hatred of Obama. Their Party has also been very active in recent attempts to limit civil rights on many fronts- no doubt for political advantage. But to see these Democrats join them is a major disappointment. The lesson for me is that the compulsion to get reelected has become sick compulsion that runs contrary to the very reason we elect people to Congress. I have also learned both parties are equally susceptible to this sickness. Those seven who voted to deny Adegbile this position did so for fear of what would be said about them in the next election.

I believe this case also illustrates how little understanding some of us have about our civil rights. Don’t scream from the campaign podium how you love the Constitution then denigrate it because you don’t like some of the people who are protected by it. Abu-Jamal’s rights were violated- conservative Courts agreed- the highest Court agreed. But the thing we have to remember about the Constitutional Rights enumerated the first ten Amendments- the Bill of Rights, is that they can only protect all of us when they equally protect the most despicable and unworthy of us. It’s the only way they really work. These are Rights granted to all without passion or prejudice, even the most hated, the most vile, or the most unpopular among us. That is the guarantee those Rights will be there for the rest us when we need them. So, of course punishing a distinguished attorney who honored the Constitution by defending a person (not based on his crime, or the hatred some felt for him, or the need some had for vengeance) but because our Constitution and our enshrined Civil Rights demanded it- was simply wrong.

We teach and preach about American values and point to the documents our founders gave us as evidence of those values. We tell the rest of the world we are exceptional and superior because of these values. But so often throughout our history, in events large and small, our incredible pettiness trumps our exceptional values. In this small event involving Debo Adegbile we saw pettiness win the day over our larger values. That's what made this the biggest story for me and once again demonstrated how uncivil we can be when the politics of personal gain becomes more important than the noble ideals established  by the Constitution.

Thanks for looking in.