Political Posturing And The Department Of (In)Justice

The Biden Department of Justice is trying to prevent the Commonwealth of Virginia from purging noncitizens from its voter rolls.

That’s right: less than one month before the November presidential election, the Justice Department has sued the commonwealth for attempting to stop individuals who have refused to verify their citizenship from voting.

All Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin did was comply with a 2006 state law, created by none other than then-Democratic Governor (and former Hillary Clinton vice presidential running mate) Tim Kaine, mandating the commonwealth remove noncitizens from its voting rolls. Yet, to the Biden DOJ, enforcing it is the equivalent of disenfranchisement.

In a statement, Youngkin labeled the Justice Department’s lawsuit an “unprecedented lawsuit” created with the aim of impacting the results of the upcoming election. While his concerns about the DOJ’s suit potentially impacting the November election results are fair, characterizing it as “unprecedented” is a stretch. The Justice Department has routinely engaged in similar acts of political posturing over the last 44 months.

Most of the public is aware of many Republicans’ concerns about how the Biden-Harris administration has — in the words of House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA) — “weaponized” the Department of Justice against former President Donald Trump. In short, the DOJ is pursuing criminal charges against him for allegedly mishandling classified documents despite being unwilling to pursue charges against President Biden for what appeared to be strikingly similar actions. Few, however, know that the Biden DOJ seemingly continues to play politics with the law in the weeks before the upcoming election.

For example, in September, the Wall Street Journal Editorial Board accused the Biden DOJ of helping the Biden-Harris administration find a scapegoat for today’s high housing and rent prices by suing landlords’ pricing software. It is intimated that the technology is responsible for today’s inflated home and apartment costs.

However, the Wall Street Journal’s Editorial Board believes that “what’s really going on here” is not a DOJ endeavoring to stop landlord price-gouging but a DOJ that is attempting “to distract voters from frustration over the Biden Administration’s inflationary policies.” With housing inflation continuing to skyrocket and the largest rent increases coming in swing states, many scholars agree with its assessment. It’s similar to how the administration previously blamed “shrinkflation” for food price spikes, Vladimir Putin for gas cost increases, and landlords for elevated rental rates.

The Biden DOJ also appears intent on working overtime to normalize the administration’s woke, social justice warrior-friendly agenda through the justice system.

It has initiated many lawsuits against police and fire departments for having “racist” written examinations because minorities are failing them at higher rates and “sexist” physical fitness requirements because women have been passing them in lower numbers when compared to men. These DOJ suits make the Biden-Harris administration smile, but it would make anyone with a sound understanding of the law gasp.

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The Biden DOJ has also acted against states implementing laws that restrict access to “gender-affirming care” for minors. For example, it sued Tennessee over its law banning gender procedures for minors, claiming it violated federal civil rights.

In a hat tip to the Administration’s ongoing socialistic-esque war on “big” companies, the Justice Department is also speaking softly and using a big regulatory stick against many private sector companies merely for being popular and efficient.

The most recent example is its September lawsuit against Visa, in which it is suing the company for supposedly monopolizing the debit card market even though consumers are overwhelmed with so many choices for debit cards and have been for nearly two decades. Many of them just prefer Visa’s offerings. However, the Biden-Harris administration, which rescinded the consumer welfare standard — a longstanding antitrust standard that ensured the government only interceded when consumers faced higher prices or worse quality services — believes that the mere act of being a big company is often reason enough for the government to get involved. And in the last 44 months, the DOJ and FTC have adjusted their interpretation of the nation’s antitrust laws accordingly.

It is a shame that the DOJ — once one of the country’s most apolitical and trusted institutions— has become nothing more than a political arm of the executive branch, but that is the reality that Americans face today. They wake up with near-weekly reminders that there appears to be one set of laws for those caught in the Biden-Harris administration’s crosshairs and one set for everyone else. This isn’t just wrong; it’s anti-American.

The American experiment hinges upon the Republic retaining three separate but equal branches of government and the Justice Department enforcing federal law and administering justice through thick and thin. If the DOJ instead modifies its interpretations of the law to conform with its political appointers’ worldview and political ambitions, then soon, little will separate the United States from the authoritarian regimes that we are supposed to be better than. And that’s in no one’s interest.

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Thomas Stratmann, PhD is a Distinguished University Professor at George Mason University and holds an appointment at both GMU’s Department of Economics and Antonin Scalia Law School.

The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the Daily Wire.