The eight-member U.S. Commission on Civil Rights has had a 6-2 progressive majority for the last seven years. During that time, the Commission has issued a number of reports supporting or promoting progressive policy positions on policing, illegal immigration, voting rights, hate crimes, prison reform, trans rights, education funding, “environmental justice,” school discipline, and religious freedom (more accurately, suppression). If you want to have a clear picture of what the Left has planned for America in 5–10 years, come to a Civil Rights Commission hearing today. Unerring.
Gail Heriot and I have been the lone conservatives on the Commission during this period. Though outnumbered, largely because of Gail’s formidable intellect and integrity, we were never outgunned. Still, we had to be three times as fast and four times as agile.
But now the terms of two progressive commissioners have expired, and President Trump has sent outstanding reinforcements in Stephen Gilchrist and J. Christian Adams. Stephen was the first to arrive and already has impressed with his knowledge and judgment. Most readers know Christian for his outstanding work on elections and voting. Ten years ago, Christian, then a highly regarded lawyer in the Justice Department’s Voting Section, was barred by the Holder DOJ from testifying before the Commission on the New Black Panther Party voter-intimidation case. Refusing to be silenced, Christian, at great risk to his career, resigned from DOJ and testified nonetheless — one of the more electrifying Commission hearings of the last 20 years. He’s been confounding the Left ever since.
Politics and law are downstream from culture. The Commission’s the canary in the coalmine for all three. Too often, conservatives have no idea where the next toxic blasts coming from. The canary’s a bit more vigilant today.