Adam Serwer on how the independent fact-finding body at the heart of the New Black Panther case is deeply politicized and largely ineffective:
While the politicization of the Civil Rights Division has drawn a great deal of attention, the politicization of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, the independent fact-finding body created in 1957 by the same law that established the Civil Rights Division, has gone largely unnoticed until the recent controversy over its role in the New Black Panther Party (NBPP) voter-intimidation case. More than any other institution outside the conservative media, the commission has added momentum and legitimacy to what one Republican appointee described as a partisan effort to bring down the Obama administration.