EDITORIAL: Return of the Black Panther

Justice is stonewalling on voter intimidation

Rarely does the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights vote unanimously on anything.

A partisan divide has made the commission contentious in recent years. Yet the Department of Justice's decision to forfeit its voter-intimidation case against the New Black Panther Party and three individual defendants drew a 6-0 vote with one abstention by the commission. What unified the commission was outrage at the Justice Department for letting the Black Panthers off the hook.