- Sep 12, 2009
- 6,840
- 3,594
Democracy Now - "Attorney General Eric Holder announced his plan to resign Thursday
after nearly six years as head of the Justice Department. He will remain in office until a
successor is nominated and confirmed. Assessments of Holder’s legacy as attorney
general have been mixed. The NAACP Legal Defense Fund hailed Holder as one of the
finest attorneys general in the nation’s history in part for his role in transforming the
Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department and his leadership on voting rights.
Meanwhile, the American Civil Liberties Union criticized Holder’s record on national
security issues. The ACLU notes that during Holder’s time in office, the Justice
Department approved the drone killing of an American in Yemen, approved the National
Security Agency’s mass surveillance programs, failed to prosecute any Bush
administration officials for torture, and presided over more leak prosecutions than all
previous Justice Departments combined. We speak to Georgetown University professor
Michael Eric Dyson, Robert Weissman of Public Citizen, Leslie Proll of the NAACP Legal
Defense Fund and Baher Azmy of the Center for Constitutional Rights."
after nearly six years as head of the Justice Department. He will remain in office until a
successor is nominated and confirmed. Assessments of Holder’s legacy as attorney
general have been mixed. The NAACP Legal Defense Fund hailed Holder as one of the
finest attorneys general in the nation’s history in part for his role in transforming the
Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department and his leadership on voting rights.
Meanwhile, the American Civil Liberties Union criticized Holder’s record on national
security issues. The ACLU notes that during Holder’s time in office, the Justice
Department approved the drone killing of an American in Yemen, approved the National
Security Agency’s mass surveillance programs, failed to prosecute any Bush
administration officials for torture, and presided over more leak prosecutions than all
previous Justice Departments combined. We speak to Georgetown University professor
Michael Eric Dyson, Robert Weissman of Public Citizen, Leslie Proll of the NAACP Legal
Defense Fund and Baher Azmy of the Center for Constitutional Rights."