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More members of the Obama Justice Department speaking out against the dropped Black Panther voter intimidation case – reverse racism charge refuses to go away.

According to D.C. insiders, if the Republicans manage to take back the House following November’s midterm elections, one of the first orders of business in 2011 will be Congressional investigations into the now infamous Black Panther voter intimidation case.  During the 2008 presidential election, two members of the New Black Panthers were filmed outside a polling place dressed in Panther garb, with one gentleman brandishing a billy club.  A complaint was filed, and an initial investigation showed the Black Panthers as having violated federal voting rights laws. Witnesses testified to the men threatening physical harm and calling a Black Republican poll watcher as being a “traitor” and warning him to not step outside or “there would be hell to pay.”  Both men claimed they were “security” for the polling place.

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That is when things became a bit more convoluted, and potentially damaging to the Obama administration.

In what appeared to be a simple open and shut case that had already received a default judgement against the New Black Panthers members, who themselves did not contest the charges, the Obama Justice Department dropped the case, citing “lack of evidence.”  Then Department of Justice member J Christian Adams was so disgusted by the dismissal he resigned his position from the department, claiming he was told that the department only wished to pursue cases against minorities, not by minorities.  This claim has since been backed up by a number of other members of the Justice Department, though they have yet to come out publicly for fear of retribution. 

A recent Washington Post investigation of the matter did find that three other Justice Department lawyers sided with Adam’s claims of institutional racial bias within the department.  According to this Washington Post report, “Civil rights officials from the Bush administration have said that enforcement should be race-neutral. But some officials from the Obama administration, who took office vowing to reinvigorate civil rights enforcement, thought the agency should focus primarily on cases filed on behalf of minorities…

“There are career people who feel strongly that it is not the voting section’s job to protect white voters,” the lawyer said. “The environment is that you better toe the line of traditional civil rights ideas or you better keep quiet about it, because you will not advance, you will not receive awards and you will be ostracized.”

If Congressional investigations into the controversy are launched in 2011, speculation is rampant that  President Obama’s Justice Department will face serious charges of racism.  Current Attorney General Eric Holder’s position is likely in danger, with the very real possibility of the investigation ultimately involving the president himself.