Justice Department Inspector General Glenn Fine issued a report yesterday that cites how the Bush Administration’s Justice Department has become highly partisan.
According to the Star Tribune:
In 2006, some applicants for sought-after jobs in the department’s honors program and summer intern program were rejected because they were members of the American Constitution Society or Planned Parenthood or because they expressed concern about gender discrimination in the military, the report found.
Other students or graduates who were brushed aside included a University of Alabama law graduate, ranked sixth in the class, who had written a paper on the detention of aliens under the USA Patriot Act, a Yale Law School graduate who was fluent in Arabic and a Georgetown law student who had worked for Sen. John Kerry’s presidential campaign.
In another case, a Harvard Law student was passed over after criticizing the nomination of Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court.
What’s more disturbing is that the career Justice Dept. staff and other senior officials openly complained about bias in the process, but their complaints were ignored, according to the report.
The inspector general is still investigating other issues related to alleged politicization of the Justice Department, including the central question of why nine U.S. attorneys were fired in late 2006.