By Nelson A. King From Caribbean Life

At least two Brooklyn Democratic politicians have appealed to the community to put pressure on the Republican leadership in the United States Senate in confirming the nomination of Loretta Lynch as the next U.S. attorney general.

Congresswoman Yvette D. Clarke, representative for the 9th Congressional District, and New York City Councilwoman Laurie Cumbo, who represents the 35th Council District, have urged constituents to call Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) to put an immediate end to the long delay in confirming Eric Holder’s successor.

“When I return to Washington [D.C.] next week, I am going to act up because we have to get Loretta Lynch confirmed,” said Clarke in addressing a gala “Women Celebrating Women” awards ceremony on Sunday at Tropical Paradise Ballroom on Utica Avenue in Brooklyn. The event was organized by the Brooklyn-based Progressive Democratic Political Association (PDPA), of which Clarke is an executive member.

“Call Mitch McConnell and tell him that you want Loretta Lynch confirmed immediately,” added Clarke, giving patrons the numbers to call and fax – (202) 224-2541 (T); (202) 224-2499 (F).

“When I return to Washington, D.C., know that I will return with your concerns in my mind and in my heart,” she continued. “There has to be a voice that speaks to communities that go unrecognized.”

Cumbo, who spoke at the same event, called for a revolt across the nation against what is perceived to be Republicans’ stalled tactics.

“We need to have a national uprising for Loretta Lynch,” she said about the first African American woman nominated to be U.S. attorney general. “This [Republicans’ delay] is an attack on all of us and an attack on women of color.”

Last week, President Obama condemned the Senate’s protracted delay in confirming Lynch as attorney general, saying that Republicans were engaged in “political gamesmanship.”

“Enough! Enough!” declared Obama at a White House press conference, stating further that the Republicans’ action was “embarrassing”.

“There are times where the dysfunction in the Senate just goes too far,” he said during the news conference with Prime Minister Matteo Renzi of Italy. “This is an example of it. It’s gone too far. Enough! Enough! Call Loretta Lynch for a vote. Get her confirmed. Put her in place. Let her do her job.”

McConnell had said he would not bring Lynch’s nomination for a vote until senators had passed a human trafficking bill that includes some abortion provisions that Democrats abhor.

But, in trying to mollify the growing uproar, he told the Senate last week that he will consider the vote this week.

“I have indicated, gosh, at least for six weeks now, we are going to deal with the Lynch nomination right after we finish trafficking,” said McConnell on the Senate floor.

Lynch, the United States attorney for the Eastern District of New York, has been waiting for almost six months to be confirmed as the next U.S. attorney general.

Photo by Nelson A. King Congresswoman Yvette D. Clarke delivers keynote address at “Women Celebrating Women.”

For more on this story go to: http://www.caribbeanlifenews.com/stories/2015/4/2015-04-22-nk-lynch-cl.html

 

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After long delay, Loretta Lynch confirmed as Attorney General

By Mike Sacks, The National Law Journal

Lynch, in 56-43 vote, becomes first African American woman to lead the Justice

Loretta Lynch, during her confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee to replace Eric Holder Jr. as the next U.S. Attorney General. January 28, 2015.

IMAGE: Loretta Lynch, during her confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee to replace Eric Holder Jr. as the next U.S. Attorney General. January 28, 2015. Photo: Diego M. Radzinschi/NLJ

The Senate on Thursday afternoon confirmed Loretta Lynch to be the U.S. attorney general, the first African-American woman to hold the post.

Lynch’s 56-43 confirmation vote marked the end of a five-month wait marked by political wrangling over President Barack Obama’s executive actions on immigration and an unrelated Senate spat over federal abortion funding.

“Even Republicans who will vote against her because they disagree with the president praise her credentials and personal qualifications,” Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-California, said before an earlier vote Thursday to end debate and move to confirmation. No previous attorney general nominee has been subject to such a cloture vote, which carries with it a filibuster threat.

Obama in November nominated Lynch—who until Thursday was the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York—to succeed Eric Holder Jr., the first African-American to lead the Justice Department.

A former Hogan & Hartson partner in New York who holds wide respect among defense lawyers, Lynch takes over the department at a time of growing tension between law enforcement and black communities across the country. The Justice Department earlier this week opened an investigation into the death of Freddie Gray in Baltimore.

“I know she’ll do a good job because I recommended her to the president for U.S. attorney twice and for attorney general once,” Sen. Charles Schumer, D-New York, said. “In Brooklyn, when she had the most difficult of cases where the police and the community were at loggerheads, she emerged from those cases with both sides—the police and the community—praising her.”

Lynch “will face some very difficult challenges—from combating cybercrime, to protecting our children from exploitation, to helping fight the war on terror,” said Senate Judiciary chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa. “But beyond that, the new attorney general has a mess to clean up. The Justice Department has been plagued the last few years by decision-making driven by politics,” Grassley said. He pointed to his ongoing oversight of the DOJ’s involvement in the gun-trafficking sting Operation Fast and Furious and its investigation of alleged partisan decision-making at the Internal Revenue Service.

Holder said in a statement after the confirmation vote:

“At every stage of her career, Loretta has earned the trust and high regard of allies and adversaries alike, both in Washington and throughout the country. She is respected by law enforcement officers, civil rights leaders, and criminal justice officials of all political stripes. In every case and every circumstance, she has demonstrated an unfailing commitment to the rule of law and a steadfast fidelity to the pursuit to justice.”

Republicans, who won control of the Senate last fall, were in no rush to send Holder, loathed by conservatives on Capitol Hill, out the door. The Senate Judiciary Committee held nomination hearings in late January and approved Lynch’s nomination a month later by an 12-8 vote.

From committee vote to confirmation, Lynch’s 56-day wait was more than twice as long as those of seven previous attorney general nominees combined.

Three committee Republicans, sens. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, and Jeff Flake, R-Arizona, voted with their nine Democratic colleagues. The remaining eight Republicans based their votes against Lynch largely on her statements at her hearing and in subsequent writings that Obama’s executive actions on immigration had a “reasonable” legal basis.

“The nominee went on to say she sees nothing wrong with the president’s decision to unilaterally grant lawful status and work authorizations, although explicitly barred by federal law, to nearly 5 million people who are in this country illegally,” Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said on Thursday. He was the sole senator who did not participate in the confirmation vote.

Lynch’s assessment met with disagreement not only with a majority of Senate Republicans but also with a federal judge’s February decision siding with Texas and 25 other states that challenged the legality of the administration’s immigration actions. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit heard oral arguments in the administration’s appeal last week.

Lynch soon gained the support of Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, whose vote with Hatch, Graham, Flake and the 46 members of the Democratic caucus, would give Lynch the bare minimum she needed for confirmation. She would later pick up the vote of Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Illinois, and keep the support of Sen. Robert Menendez, D-New Jersey, who the DOJ indicted for corruption this month.

With enough votes to confirm and several other Republicans undecided, Lynch’s Democratic supporters, led by Judiciary Committee ranking member Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, repeatedly took to the Senate floor and the airwaves to agitate for a speedier confirmation.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, had other plans. The Judiciary Committee, on the same day it approved of Lynch’s nomination, sent to the Senate floor a bipartisan anti-human trafficking bill. Committee Democrats unanimously cleared the bill before they realized it included a provision that broadened a long-standing law banning federal funding for abortions. To pressure Democrats to assent to the language, McConnell said in March he would not bring Lynch’s name to the floor for a vote until the Senate passed the anti-trafficking bill.

The move brought additional criticism from Senate Democrats and Lynch’s supporters. “The Senate can debate legislation and vote on nominations at the same time—and to say otherwise is merely a hollow excuse,” Leahy said in a March 15 statement. A month later, the National Action Network, a civil rights organization led by Rev. Al Sharpton, threatened to hunger strike until Lynch’s confirmation.

On Tuesday, McConnell and Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, announced that the bill’s sponsor, Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, reached a compromise with Sen. Patty Murray, D-Washington, on the abortion language. The Senate on Wednesday passed the bill by a 99-0 vote, clearing the way for Lynch’s confirmation.

In the end, 10 Republicans crossed party lines, with McConnell and sens. Kelly Ayotte, R-New Hampshire, Thad Cochran, R-Mississippi, Ron Johnson, R-Wisconsin, and Rob Portman, R-Illinois, waiting until the vote itself to announce their support.

While celebrating the new attorney general, Democrats expressed dismay with the senators opposing Lynch. “We have a new test: You must disagree with the president who nominates you,” Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Missouri, said, before making an implicit jab at 2016 presidential hopefuls sens. Cruz, Marco Rubio, R-Florida, and Rand Paul, R-Kentucky. “If we all adopt this base politics play to the cheap seats—‘I can’t get elected president unless I’m against Loretta Lynch’—if we all adopt that in the future, how is any president elected in this country going to assemble a cabinet?”

Lynch’s acting deputy attorney general, Sally Yates, took a step towards making her job official on Thursday when she passed through the Judiciary Committee on an 18-2 vote. Before the vote, Grassley praised Yates for answering questions he believed Lynch had evaded, which he said was one of the reasons Yates, and not Lynch, earned his favor.

“Ms. Yates is nominated to be deputy attorney general. She’ll be the No. 2 at the department. In this position, obviously, she’ll have less policy-making authority than the attorney general. That factor, as well her a willingness to demonstrate some independence when the situation calls for it, and her willingness to take at least small steps to respond to some of my questions, leads me to support her nomination today,” Grassley said.

Holder’s already said his goodbyes to department employees. That happened back in February, when it appeared Lynch was on track to take over at Main Justice. Holder, a former Covington & Burling partner, hasn’t yet announced his post-DOJ plans but he says he wants to continue his work on criminal justice reform.

For more on this story: http://www.nationallawjournal.com/id=1202724326994/After-Long-Delay-Loretta-Lynch-Confirmed-as-Attorney-General#ixzz3YFKaJtQ7