Defying DOJ Instructions, Christopher Coates Will Testify Friday on New Black Panther Case

Hans von Spakovsky / September 23, 2010

The news that Christopher Coates, former chief of the Justice Department’s Voting Section, is set to testify Friday before the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights is crucial to the panel’s investigation of allegations that the Obama administration has not enforced the nation’s civil rights laws in a race-neutral manner.

The testimony by Coates, a career government lawyer, is expected to shed light on whether DOJ:

• Discriminated against white voters in dismissing the voter-intimidation case against two members of the New Black Panther Party and the party itself that arose from incidents at a Philadelphia polling place on Election Day 2008.
• Had a general policy or practice in its Civil Rights Division of not enforcing voting laws when the subjects of complaints were racial minorities. (more…)