Reply #6: From NPR in Oct: Career Lawyers Leaving Justice Department

[Rose Siding]

So the Bushists have driven away lawyers, economists, scientists and the diplomatic corps. Guess that's one way to get down to bathtub size :grr:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4946744

Morning Edition, October 6, 2005 · Tension has been growing between career lawyers and political appointees in the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, according to some longtime career attorneys who have recently left the division. Now the Senate Judiciary Committee is holding confirmation hearings for a new leader of the politically sensitive group.

Some career professionals who have left the Civil Rights Division say they left because they were shut out of the decision making process in a way that did not occur under previous administrations.

A spokesman for Justice says that there is no split between political appointees and career lawyers. He points to the division's recent accomplishments in disability rights and human trafficking prosecutions as proof of it's effectiveness.

And this...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/12/AR2005111201200.html

Civil Rights Focus Shift Roils Staff At Justice

By Dan Eggen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, November 13, 2005; Page A01

The Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, which has enforced the nation's anti-discrimination laws for nearly half a century, is in the midst of an upheaval that has driven away dozens of veteran lawyers and has damaged morale for many of those who remain, according to former and current career employees.

Nearly 20 percent of the division's lawyers left in fiscal 2005, in part because of a buyout program that some lawyers believe was aimed at pushing out those who did not share the administration's conservative views on civil rights laws. Longtime litigators complain that political appointees have cut them out of hiring and major policy decisions, including approvals of controversial GOP redistricting plans in Mississippi and Texas......