Tag Archives: DOJ

MONTANA: Man Who Brandished AK-47 And Threatened To Kill All Gay People In Town Sentenced to 18 Years In Prison.

MONTANA: Man Who Brandished AK-47 And Threatened To Kill All Gay People In Town Sentenced to 18 Years In Prison.

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John Howald, 46, opened fire at the woman’s home in Basin, Montana in March 2020 and set off to shoot others while shouting anti-gay slurs and saying he wanted to “clean” the small community by killing all the gay and lesbian people.

Luckily no one was injured.

A jury convicted Howald in February of a hate crime and a count that deals with discharging a firearm during a hate crime.

Howald’s attorneys argued in a sentencing memorandum that at the time, Howald had been suffering from emotional trauma, he was very drunk and “he had long struggled with his own sexuality.”

Prosecutors wrote in their sentencing memo that Howald had two assault rifles, a hunting rifle, two pistols and high-capacity magazines that had been taped together for faster reloading on the day of the shooting.

Via The DOJ:

“This defendant is being held accountable for his horrific attempted mass shooting against the LGBTQI+ community in a Montana town,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “Howald set out to rid the town of all LGBTQI+ members by killing them. He shot into the home of a lesbian resident, nearly killing her, with the hope of inspiring similar attacks around the country. The Justice Department will continue to vigorously defend the rights of all people, regardless of their sexual orientation, to be free from hate-fueled violence. This Pride Month, we affirm our commitment to using the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Hate Crimes Prevention Act to hold perpetrators of hate-fueled violence targeting the LGBTQI+ community accountable.”

Howald fired 11 shots into the woman’s home and fired five more in the middle of town while arguing with residents who were trying to get him to stop, prosecutors said, and also stated that he wanted to start a “revolution” and inspire other attacks.

Basin is a community of around 200 people in the western part of Montana, a little more than 20 miles southwest of Helena

Justice Department Ordered to Release 1950’s Gay ‘Purge’ Lavender Scare Documents

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The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled last week that the Justice Department must search for and release historical records pertaining to a “purge” of gay and lesbian federal employees by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) under J. Edgar Hoover.

The documents are related to President Dwight Eisenhower’s Executive Order 10450, which gave the heads of federal agencies the power to investigate and dismiss government workers if they posed a national security risk.

The lawsuit’s plaintiff, along with LGBT historians, however, claim the actual purpose of the program was to allow the Hoover-led FBI legal authority to fire thousands of gay and lesbian employees across the federal government.

U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth in Friday’s ruling rejected arguments by the FBI that the search would produce a burdensome number of documents, and he was skeptical of claims that searches relating to Chief Justice Warren Burger — an assistant attorney general at the time who was tasked with enforcing EO 10450 — turned up no relevant results.

“The Government states that there is not a single responsive document amongst the results,” Lamberth wrote in the ruling. “Respectfully, this strains credulity.”

Lillian Faderman, an LGBT historian and author of “The Gay Revolution,” called the district court’s ruling “very significant,” but she noted Eisenhower’s executive order wasn’t the beginning of the U.S. government’s weeding out of gay employees.

“Truman in 1947 had signed [Executive Order 9835, known as the “Loyalty Order”], and that gave enough ammunition to the State Department to begin witch hunting homosexuals,” she said. “Throughout the early 1950s there were firings, but [Eisenhower’s order] gave even more ammunition.”

Faderman said the purge officially continued until 1975, when the U.S. Civil Service Commission (the government entity that actually did the firing) ended it

“It’s important to the preservation of LGBT American history,” said Lisa Linsky a partner at McDermott Will & Emery, the law firm that has been working pro bono with the Mattachine Society for the past five years to get these documents released, “The files are part of a broader story. It’s also important that our allies and other fellow citizens understand what the government did so we could do our best to avoid repeating history.”

“Given the current environment, we need to do everything that we can to identify these historic documents, preserve them and make sure that the public is aware of the story of the government animus and discrimination toward LGBT people,” she explained, “because we’re at a time when the government — this particular administration — is not supportive of the LGBT community and preserving the civil rights that we have obtained.”

Jeff Sessions and the DOJ Set To Reject LGBT Workplace Protections Under Title VII

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According to sources from the Washington Blade, Jeff Sessions and the Justice Department intends to file a friend-of-the-court brief that would affirm the view of the three-judge panel on the Second Circuit who  in April determined Title VII doesn’t prohibit anti-gay discrimination in the case of Zarda v. Altitude Express which alleges  Donald Zarda, who has since passed away  was fired from his job in 2010 for being gay.

Such a brief would reverse a position under former U.S. Attorney Eric Holder asserting discrimination on the basis of gender identity is prohibited under Title VII. In a 2014 memo, Holder wrote the Justice Department will no longer assert Title VII’s prohibition on gender discrimination “does not encompass gender identity per se (including transgender discrimination).”

The current case is under review at the request of Lambda Legal has agreed to reconsider the ruling “en banc,” or before the full court.

James Esseks, director of the ACLU’s LGBT and HIV Project, states that filing such a brief would be going out of its way to undermine LGBT rights.

“This would be a gratuitous and extraordinary attack on LGBT people’s civil rights,” Esseks said. “DOJ would be reaching out to offer its opinion on these issues, since they are not a party to this case. That’s not championing LGBT people, it’s working affirmatively to expose us to discrimination. But fortunately, whether the Civil Rights Act protects LGBT people is ultimately a question for the courts to resolve, and not for the attorney general. We are confident that the courts will come to the right decision here.”

Even though the Justice Department brief would be restricted to an interpretation of law related to employment, it could have implications for other federal laws barring sex discrimination in housing and education and seems to be at odds with the position of the Education Department.

If you think this is not an all out war against the LGBT community.  Think again.

American Family Association Hate Group: Impeach Eric Holder He Loves The Gays!

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Evil Prayers

 

“United States Attorney General Eric Holder, this week, has again overstepped the boundaries of the law when he arbitrarily ordered that homosexual couples will now receive government benefits reserved only for natural marriage status. This applies even in states that have laws defining marriage as only between one man and one woman. Taking a nod from the playbook of his boss, President Barack Obama, Holder wielded his own pen and paper, trampling on states’ rights and disenfranchising voters in states defining marriage as only between one man and one woman. TAKE ACTION! Urge your representative to press for the impeachment of Attorney General Eric Holder for high crimes and misdemeanors.” – From an email sent today by the SLPC recognized hate group the GOP backed American Family Association to its supporters. (All 25 of them) The impeachment bill they cite was introduced over two years ago and still only has 24 House cosponsors. Muah!

Sore losers’ sadz rampage.

AG Eric Holder Announces The Federal Government WiII Recognize Utah Gay Marriages – VIDEO

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Eric Holder Uphold Same Sex marriage

The Justice Department announced today that the Obama administration will recognize more than 1,300 same-sex marriages that were left in legal limbo in Utah after the state won an injunction to stop additional unions.

The move today by Attorney General Eric Holder directly and brazenly counters a decision by Mormon led state of Utah to not recognize the outcome of the state’s challenge of the federal court ruling.

Holder said in a videotaped statement that the Obama administration will recognize the marriages as they apply to federal matters.

“I am confirming today that, for purposes of federal law, these marriages will be recognized as lawful and considered eligible for all relevant federal benefits on the same terms as other same-sex marriages,” Holder said

.“These families should not be asked to endure uncertainty regarding their status as the litigation unfolds. In the days ahead, we will continue to coordinate across the federal government to ensure the timely provision of every federal benefit to which Utah couples and couples throughout the country are entitled – regardless of whether they are in same-sex or opposite-sex marriages.”

Utah Gov. Gary Herbert, a devout Mormon put state recognition of same-sex marriages on hold Wednesday on advice from his attorney general, Sean Reyes. Neither Herbert nor Reyes had immediate comment on Holder’s announcement.

Same-sex couples in Utah and the LGBT community across the nation applaud the Justice Department’s move.

Supreme Court Allows Department of Justice To Speak Out Against Prop 8

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White House

In newly released court orders on Friday, the Supreme Court announced that the Obama administration’s  Department of Justice U.S. Solicitor General will be allowed to speak in oral arguments in California’s long  anticipated Proposition 8 same-sex marriage case which is scheduled for March 26.

“The motion of the Solicitor General for leave to participate in oral argument as amicus curiae and for divided argument is granted,” the orders states.

The Justice Department filed a request for speaking time in the oral arguments not long after it filed a legal brief against Prop 8 in which the Obama administration argued Prop 8 should be overturned because laws related to sexual orientation should be subjected to heightened scrutiny, or a greater assumption they’re unconstitutional.

The Obama administration is also participating in litigation against the Defense of Marriage Act pending before the Supreme Court. Oral arguments for that case are set for March 27.

Source: Washington Blade

Department Of Justice Asks The Supreme Court to Take On DOMA’s Constitutionality

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The Obama administration’s Department of Justice  is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review a pair of cases challenging the constitutionality of the federal definition of “marriage” contained in the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) in its upcoming spring session

In the filings to the Supreme Court for the cases Golinski v. Office of Personnel management and Massachusetts v. Department of Health and Human Services General Donald Verrilli Jr., the DOJ’s top appellate litigator, argues that a single question is presented by the cases, which the Supreme Court should accept the cases to answer: “Whether Section 3 of DOMA violates the Fifth Amendment’s guarantee of equal protection of the laws as applied to persons.

Since February 2011, DOJ has stopped defending Section 3 of DOMA, following a determination by President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder that the law is unconstitutional and explains its reasons for asking the Supreme Court to hear the cases:

Although the Executive Branch agrees with the district court’s determination in this case that Section 3 is unconstitutional, we respectfully seek this Court’s review so that the question may be authoritatively decided by this Court. As explained above, to ensure that the Judiciary is the final arbiter of Section 3’s constitutionality, the President has instructed Executive departments and agencies to continue to enforce Section 3 until there is a definitive judicial ruling that Section 3 is unconstitutional.

The Supreme Court then will consider whether it wants to take the case after it returns from its summer recess, a question most expect it to be yes since the constitutionality of a federal statute is at issue and  appears to be  likely after today’s filings.

You can read the Department of Justices letter and petition HERE:

Oy Vey! Tony Perkins And His Anti-Gay Hate Group "The Family Research Council" Is Pissy That The DOJ’s Appeal To Defend DOMA Just Isn’t Anti-Gay Enough

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Last Friday I posted that the Department of Justice announced yesterday that they were going to be appealing the two rulings, in Gill v. Office of Personnel Management and Commonwealth of Massachusetts vs. Department of Health and Human Services and defend the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).

Well thats not good enough for Brian Brown and The National Organization For Marriage. Because the DOJ’s reasons to appeal weren’t anti-gay enough.

Now Ginger haired “Princess Tiny Meat” Tony Perkins and his officially recognized hate group The Family Research Council is in a tizzy because they don’t think that the DOJ is doing enough to be anti-gay and bigoted in thier defense of the unconstitutional law that is called the Defense Of Marriage Act.

“Apparently, the administration is so fixated on making the homosexual community happy that it’s not even working to uphold what’s best for kids. In this instance, the Justice Department seems to imply that by doing their job they’re somehow doing America a favor. Hardly! Defending the law is DOJ’s whole reason for existence. So while the President may have strong feelings on the matter, they by no means excuse him or his administration from doing its duty. Since the President is failing to live up to the responsibilities his elected office holds, it is within Congress’ explicit right to intervene to defend the laws they have passed. This current appeal is already shoddy substitute for the compelling argument that the statute–and American families–deserve.” – Tony Perkins via Press Release

Perhaps the Department of Justice isn’t doing it’s job properly enough and we all  should all start pushing it to do so.  It can start by investigating the FRC, AFA, IFI, NOM and all those other alphabetic anti-gay hate groups  for violations of the RICO Act.

Brain Brown and NOM Are Pissy That The DOJ’s Appeal To Defend DOMA Just Isn’t Anti-Gay Enough

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This morning I posted that the Department of Justice had announced yesterday that they were going to be appealing the two rulings, in Gill v. Office of Personnel Management and Commonwealth of Massachusetts vs. Department of Health and Human Services, in which Judge Joseph Tauro of Boston ruled that the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) violates the Fifth Amendment and impedes the state of Massachusetts’s ability to define marriage.

Well thats not good enough for Brian Brown and The National Organization For Marriage.  Why?  Because the DOJ’s reasons to appeal weren’t anti-gay enough.

“The DOJ brief amounts to collusive litigation, failing to even offer to the court, much less vigorously defend, the reasons Congress laid out in the statute when it passed DOMA, especially responsible procreation. This is an attack not only on marriage, but on the prerogatives of Congress. The Executive branch should not attempt to exercise this kind of retroactive line-item veto over a bill passed by Congress.

All the parties to this litigation want the court to strike down DOMA; this is clear from their behavior, no matter what President Obama and his politicized DOJ pretend to convey to the public. If Obama’s DOJ had merely honestly refused to defend the law, the court would likely have permitted another party to intervene to defend the law. Obama’s DOJ is trying to retain control so it can lose this case.”

Some self loating, closet case, homophobic bigots are never happy now.  Are they?

BREAKING NEWS: Ninth Circuit Court Of Appeals Stays Injunction Against Enforcing DADT

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Typical.  The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has granted the DOJ’s emergency request for a temporary stay on Judge Virginia Phillips’ order to stop enforcing DADT.

This court has received appellant’s emergency motion to stay the district court’s October 12, 2010 order pending appeal. The order is stayed temporarily in order to provide this court with an opportunity to consider fully the issues presented. Appellee may file an opposition to the motion for a stay pending appeal by October 25, 2010. To expedite consideration of the motion, no reply shall be filed

Obama just brough DADT back to life on HIS WATCH. 

HE IS NOW RESPONSIBLE FOR DADT/BEING BACK ON THE BOOKS.