Justice Denied

On Wednesday the Senate rejected Debo Adegbile as Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights because of his work at the NAACP Legal and Education Defense Fund. The Fund filed a brief on behalf of Mumia Abu-Jamal, who was convicted of killing a Philadelphia police officer in 1982 in a case that still ignites passions in the region. I thought of Owen Walker, a friend I haven’t seen since college, who was for 25 years the Federal Public Defender for Massachusetts. One of his clients was Richard Reid, who in 2001 tried to blow up an airplane by detonating a bomb in his sneaker. Curious about Owen’s reaction to the Senate vote, I called him and asked whether his defense of Reid means he is soft on shoe bombers. He is not. “In fact,” he said, “my views on criminal justice are very conservative. I am also very proud of the work my office did on behalf of our clients.” To punish Adegbile because of someone he represented, Walker said, is “outrageous”, and he pointed out that John Adams, who defended the British soldiers after the Boston Massacre, “went on to become president of the United States.”

Adegbile, raised by a single mother, has lived what we used to call the American Dream. That dream is not just for the dreamer. It is the mythic glue that holds this country together. I expect Republicans to reflexively vote against Obama nominees. But it took seven Democrats to put politics above the promise of American life.