Biden Attorney General Merrick Garland is expected to face tough questions from Republican senators Wednesday regarding what many in the nation say has been the purposeful weaponization of the Department of Justice against parents of schoolchildren, Catholics who live their faith in the public square, and activists who fight for the vulnerable unborn.
Garland will appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee where live coverage of the hearing on the topic of Oversight of the Department of Justice (DOJ) can be seen beginning at 10:00 a.m. Eastern.
Welcome, Attorney General Garland.
Thank you for joining us today. pic.twitter.com/n9T8DXC3es
— Senate Judiciary Committee (@JudiciaryDems) March 1, 2023
National Catholic organization CatholicVote has been among the most vocal against what it says has been the DOJ’s blatant partisan agenda against Americans with traditional values, including Catholics, pro-life Americans, parents who take an active role in the lives of their children, and those who seek to protect the unborn.
“Attorney General Merrick Garland owes every American a truthful answer to the growing evidence that he is not committed to equally enforcing our nation’s laws,” said CatholicVote President Brian Burch in a statement Wednesday. “He presides over a deeply partisan and reckless Department of Justice that is openly weaponizing our nation’s law enforcement agencies against the Administration’s political opponents. This includes the egregious targeting of concerned parents and innocent pro-life citizens.”
AG Merrick Garland is testifying today before the Senate Judiciary Committee. After 2 years of almost complete silence on violence against churches & pregnancy care centers, while openly targeting parents and Catholics — here's some critical questions that need answers: 🧵
— CatholicVote (@CatholicVote) March 1, 2023
CatholicVote tweeted the following thread as well, noting Garland’s appearance before the Judiciary Committee and that “after 2 years of almost complete silence on violence against churches & pregnancy care centers, while openly targeting parents and Catholics,” senators need to ask him “some critical questions,” including what he attributes to “the 289 acts of violence and vandalism against Catholic churches since May 2020,” with “zero federal prosecutions,” and to the 80 pregnancy care center attacks since the leak of the Supreme Court’s draft opinion in Dobbs.
Attacking a place of worship is a federal crime, but of those 300 attacks against Catholic churches, there have been zero federal prosecutions. Does the Department of Justice have any ongoing investigations into the church attacks?
— CatholicVote (@CatholicVote) March 1, 2023
“As attacks against churches and pregnancy centers go mostly unpunished, the DOJ is cracking down on pro-lifers, who believe they are being disproportionately targeted,” CatholicVote continued in its thread. “Does DOJ have plans to vigorously seek & prosecute pro-abortion extremists?”
Does the DOJ consider Jane’s Revenge, Ruth Sent Us, Rise Up 4 Abortion Rights, & other extremist groups which have attacked churches and pregnancy care centers to be domestic terrorist organizations? If not, why not?
— CatholicVote (@CatholicVote) March 1, 2023
“The FBI field office in Richmond recently wrote a memo which linked traditional Catholics to ‘racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists,'” the Catholic organization raised another question that senators should pose to Garland as well. “Do you think it was inappropriate to label people who prefer the Latin Mass as extremists?”
“The anti-Catholic FBI memo repeatedly cited the Southern Poverty Law Center, a group which itself has ties to domestic extremists,” the thread continued. “One of its supporters attempted to murder the staff of the Family Research Council in 2012. Do you consider the SPLC a credible source?”
The anti-Catholic FBI memo repeatedly cited the Southern Poverty Law Center, a group which itself has ties to domestic extremists. One of its supporters attempted to murder the staff of the Family Research Council in 2012. Do you consider the SPLC a credible source?
— CatholicVote (@CatholicVote) March 1, 2023
In noting Garland’s and his agency’s trail of “raw politics,” Burch said Biden’s attorney general and his agency have “utterly failed to address the growing vandalism and violence aimed at Catholic churches and pregnancy care centers nationwide.”
“His shameful record as Attorney General has been unmasked as nothing more than raw politics masquerading as impartial justice,” the CatholicVote leader added. “Unfortunately, Garland’s appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee this week likely will only raise more questions than it answers.”
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Susan Berry, PhD is national education editor at The Star News Network. Email tips to [email protected].
Image “Attorney General Merrick Garland” by US Senate Judiciary Committee.
