Loretta Lynch Is Preparing To Hand Over Her Justice Department To Trump
I am realizing the word transition really means devolution for so many.
Loretta Lynch Is Preparing To Hand Over Her Justice Department To Trump
https://www.buzzfeed.com/dominicholden/lynch-preparing-to-hand-over-her-justice-department?utm_term=.rgwKvxROn#.tw9Y42E9n
The US Attorney General spoke with BuzzFeed News about what the transition means for LGBT Americans.
posted on Dec. 13, 2016, at 5:25 p.m.
Dominic Holden
Katie Orlinsky / BuzzFeed News
..............Thousands of career workers at the Justice Department, rather than political appointees, staff the agency from one president to the next, Lynch noted, and they will stay on.
“I know that people are very committed to the work of protecting the rights of our LGBT friends, family members, and neighbors. That work has continued throughout several administrations recently, so I do feel that the commitment will remain, that the people who care about these issues will remain, and they will continue raising them as well,” she said.
But unlike the career staff’s obligation to enforce bans on religious or racial discrimination, which are explicitly banned under federal law, LGBT people’s legal protections are more vulnerable to the next political tide.
Lynch’s lawyers, since she took the Justice Department’s helm in early 2015, have aggressively advanced the view that civil rights laws that ban sex discrimination also ban discrimination against transgender people — particularly at work and in school. That viewpoint is a signature of Obama’s LGBT legacy and has been adopted across numerous agencies, but it is not federal law. Rather, it has been baked into regulations and guidance, rankling conservatives who have sued the government to reverse some of the guidance.
Speaking to what may unfold under the next attorney general, she said, “Where there is a matter that is pure policy as opposed to settled law, I don’t know what will happen there.”
Trump has nominated Sen. Jeff Sessions to be his attorney general, which still requires confirmation by the Senate. The Alabama Republican voted to advance a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage, voted against a workplace nondiscrimination bill that addressed sexual orientation, and he co-sponsored a religious freedom bill to protect those who act in religious opposition to same-sex marriage........................
= new reply since forum marked as read
