BLIND JUSTICE.

BLIND JUSTICE. Remember all those statues of justice as a blindfolded woman holding the scales in balance? The reality is just a little bit different. Justice these days might not be quite so blind, especially in the Department of Justice, where the party affiliations of prospective employees have been checked before hiring decisions are made. The person holding the scales is also not terribly likely to be a female, and the contents of those scale cups might surprise some of you, too. For instance, did you know that religious discrimination is one of the main areas of focus for the department?A recent New York Times article discusses how well the Department of Justice has served the religious base of the Republican party by focusing its resources on fighting discrimination against the religious. Too bad that the focus on these beneficiaries has meant less reinforcement of civil rights in general. From the New York Times article:

Some critics say that many of the Justice Department's religious-oriented initiatives are outside its mandate from Congress. While statutes prohibit religious discrimination in areas like employment and housing, no laws address some of the issues in which the department has become involved."They are engaging in freewheeling social engineering," said Ayesha Khan, counsel for Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and "using the power of the federal government to put in place an ideological, not constitutional agenda."The department declined to make available for interviews Assistant Attorney General Wan J. Kim, who heads the civil rights division, or Eric Treene, who holds the newly created position of special counsel for religious discrimination.Ms. Magnuson, the Justice Department spokeswoman, said it was justified in devoting so much attention to the issue because Congress has demonstrated its interest by including religion in the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 and enacting the 2000 law involving zoning restrictions, the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act.

And what might suffer, given this new emphasis of the department? The article mentions race-based discrimination as one of those areas which now gets less attention. Gender-based discrimination doesn't even get a mention.I'm not sure what to make of all this. Perhaps the old saying about "elections having consequences" will do. On the other hand, some of those consequences are pretty surprising. Take the new hiring policies of the Department of Justice:

Figures provided by the department show that from 2003 through 2006, there was a notable increase of hirings from religious-affiliated institutions like Regent University and Ave Maria University. The department hired eight from those two schools in that period, compared to 50 from Harvard and 13 from Yale.Several career lawyers said that some political appointees favored the religious-oriented employees, intervening to steer $1,000 to $4,000 annual merit bonuses to them.Ms. Oliveri and several other law professors said placement officers and faculty at their schools found that graduates seeking work at the Justice Department had a better chance by cleansing their resumes of liberal affiliations while emphasizing ties to the Federalist Society, a Washington conservative group, or membership in a religious fellowship.Ms. Oliveri recalled that when she was hired in 2000 by the Justice Department, she was impressed by the accomplishments of her peers. But once the political appointees controlled the hiring, she said, "The change in the quality of people who were chosen was very pronounced."When the front office sent around the resumes of those newly hired for the honors program, she said, "It was obvious what they had: conservative and religious bona fides."

Interesting. Harold Meyerson notes that it isn't just the religious base of the Republican Party that benefits from this new kind of justice -- Wall Street is also faring quite well. It looks like payback time for two important constituencies of the Republican party.

--J. Goodrich