The Muckraker's Reference Section
Bradley Schlozman
Bradley Schlozman is a top political appointee for the Justice Department. After a controversial tenure as the #2 in the Civil Rights Division where he oversaw the voting rights section, Schlozman moved on to serve as interim US Attorney for the Western District of Missouri. Schlozman has been accused of encouraging the politicization of his department. He used his posts in the civil rights division and later as a US Attorney to target alleged voter fraud.
Schlozman resigned as interim US Attorney in April 2007 following the appointment of a confirmed US Attorney. He is now working in The Executive Office for United States Attorneys.
Key Points:
Schlozman helped to politicize the hiring process in the Civil Rights Division.
Schlozman is accused of hiring career employees based on their political leanings. Ty Clevenger and a former colleague both expressed concerns that political preference played a role in hiring. In addition, an anonymous group of Justice Department officials complained that the Justice Department as a whole was discriminating against liberal applicants.
Schlozman helped to politicize the Civil Rights Division.
Several former employees at the Justice Department have pointed to Schlozman's tenure as a period that brought intense pressure against career employees to toe the Republican party line. Joe Rich, chief of the voting section of the Civil Rights Divison, wrote that "outright hostility to career employees who disagreed with the political appointees was evident." Bob Kengle, former deputy chief of the voting section, claimed he retired due to "institutional sabotage."
Meanwhile, under Schlozman the number of prosecutions intended to protect the rights of blacks plummeted, while the Civil Rights Division brought its first ever case of blacks discriminating against whites.
Schlozman challenged and overruled the opinions of career employees.
In his tenure at Main Justice, Schlozman oversaw a controversial decision to support the legality of a George law that required citizens to produce a photo ID before voting. Despite the strong objection of career attorneys, the Civil Rights Division approved the law. When the Georgia Supreme Court later struck down the law as unconstitutional, Schlozman himself penned an editorial defending the decision.
A similar decision was made in Texas regarding a congressional redistricting case. Although the career officials involved warned that the change would unfairly discriminate against minorities, the political appointees overruled the recommendation.
Schlozman served ten months as an interim US Attorney.
Schlozman was appointed the interim US Attorney for Eastern Missouri on March 23, 2006 after his predecessor, Tom Graves, was forced out of office by top officials. Because of changes to the Patriot Act signed into law two weeks before Schlozman's appointment, the Attorney General was given power to appoint interim US Attorneys for an indefinite period.Although Attorney General Gonzales insisted that it was never the intention of the Justice Department to use this power to circumvent the Senate, Schlozman served as interim Attorney until April 2007.
Schlozman brought controversial cases of voter fraud.
Schlozman used his appointment in Missouri to push investigations of voter fraud. Only a week before the closely-watched November 2006 midterm election, Schlozman indicted four individuals who had worked for the voter-registration organization ACORN. (ACORN was aware of the transgressions of their employees, and notified the US Attorney's office.) This action violated DOJ policy not to bring indictments that might affect an impending election, although Schlozman maintains his actions were appropriate and the indictments were not hurried.
Research by Will Thomas
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