Remarks of AAG Wan J. Kim
ADC Judges Night Dinner
September 20, 2006
Dearborn, Michigan

Thank you for inviting me to address ADC during your Judges Night Dinner. It is a privilege to be here. I very much value the relationship that the Department of Justice and the ADC have built together. My staff is in touch with ADC’s staff on almost a daily basis, gathering and exchanging information about discrimination against Arab-Americans in a wide range of areas. This close relationship – and trust – that we have built over several years have enabled us to solve many problems together quickly and effectively.

I would like to begin by offering a hearty acknowledgment of tonight’s honorees, Judge Tarnow, Judge Dingell, and Judge McCarthy. Many congratulations to you all. Thank you for your distinguished contributions to the law and to our system of justice, the finest in all of the world.

I am humbled and honored to be part of the Civil Rights Division, with its long and proud history of protecting some of our nation’s highest collective ideals and aspirations. Next year the Civil Rights Division will celebrate its 50th anniversary. For nearly half a century now, the Division has been instrumental in enforcing the promise carved into stone over the entrance to the United States Supreme Court: “Equal Justice Under Law.”

The Division was created by the Civil Rights Act of 1957, the first civil rights law passed since Reconstruction. We were formed to aid in the momentous task of ensuring voting rights for all Americans, and to speed the ending of government-sponsored discrimination. But the Division was only one of many actors that helped to close the shameful chapter of de jure discrimination in this country, and only one of many institutions that helped to move this country closer to our goal of ensuring equal opportunity for every person. It was the judiciary that led the way – in the cases leading up to Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, in the Brown decision itself, and in the years afterward implementing that decision. Judge’s Night is a very appropriate time to recognize the critical role that a strong and independent judiciary has played in securing our civil rights in this country.

I recently represented the United States in Geneva before the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. One of the things I repeatedly stressed in my remarks was the effectiveness of our independent judiciary in securing civil and political rights in America. History proves the truth of my words. At perhaps no other time in our history was the leadership of the judiciary as critical as during the 1950's. The Supreme Court sent a powerful message to our nation and the world in unanimously deciding that our Constitutional order would not tolerate treating some people as inferior to others based on the color of their skin. And the implementation of the Brown decision demonstrated great acts of courage by jurists throughout the South, many of whom were ostracized by their friends and communities for their steadfast adherence to principle and the rule of law.

Courage, of course, was displayed by members in all three branches of government. Some of our most senior attorneys in the Civil Rights Division tell stories of how, as young DOJ attorneys litigating in the south, they were required to call back to their supervisor in Washington DC each day – just to let them know that they were still alive. The Department of Justice held a program three years ago on the 40th anniversary of the integration of the University of Mississippi, honoring the 127 United States Marshals who risked their lives to protect James Meredith as he went to school. Thirty of these brave Marshals suffered gunshot wounds. John Doar, my predecessor and the fourth Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division, literally lived with James Meredith during that dangerous time.

Members of Congress showed political courage in enacting the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which to this day serves as the bread and butter of our work at the Civil Rights Division. While our work has evolved and broadened considerably over the years – from enforcing just a few statutes to just a few dozen statutes – our fundamental mission has remained constant. We enforce the laws that represent some of our nation’s highest collective ideals, and in doing so, protect some of the most vulnerable members of our society.

The Division’s proud history, tradition and experience made it the obvious choice to spearhead the Justice Department’s response to the shameful spike in bias-motivated crimes that followed the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Immediately after the attacks, we witnessed an outburst of attacks, based on mindless and misplaced anger, against Arab Americans, Muslim-Americans, South Asian Americans, and Sikh-Americans. There were over 300 such incidents in the months after the attacks, ranging from threatening graffiti and emailed bomb threats, to violent assaults and even murder.

The United States government mobilized quickly to quell this rash of attacks. The President denounced the violence, saying “Those who feel like they can intimidate our fellow citizens to take out their anger don't represent the best of America, they represent the worst of humankind.” The Attorney General likewise publicly denounced the violence, and ordered the FBI and the Civil Rights Division to make investigation and prosecution of these crimes a priority. Then-attorney General John Ashcroft said, “We must not descend to the level of those who perpetrated Tuesday's violence by targeting individuals based on their race, their religion, or their national origin. Such . . . violence and threats are in direct opposition to the very principles and laws of the United States and will not be tolerated.”

Working closely with state and local prosecutors and police, the FBI and the Civil Rights Division did everything possible to bring the perpetrators of these crimes to justice. For example, we successfully prosecuted a man in Salt Lake City who tried to burn down a Pakistani restaurant on September 13 under federal hate crime charges. The man who shot and killed Sikh gas station owner Balbir Singh Sodhi in Mesa, Arizona during a drive-by shooting was caught, prosecuted, and sentenced to death. We also worked closely with members of the affected communities, arranging meetings with key leaders to identify problem areas, open lines of communication, and work toward stemming the wave of hate.

Thankfully that wave of violence subsided after three months. Yet the problem did not go away. While levels of violence were much lower, there developed a persistent pattern of hate crimes at rates higher than those prior to 9/11.

This persistent problem called for a more systematic and institutionalized response. The Justice Department responded quickly by forming relationships with Middle Eastern and South Asian leaders. These relationships have evolved into enduring partnerships and friendships. Senior Justice Department officials have held more than 75 meetings with leaders of Muslim, Arab, and South-Asian American organizations around the country since 9/11. Further, the Justice Department's Community Relations Service has held more than 250 town and community meetings throughout the country since September 11, 2001.

I host a meeting every two months that brings together community leaders with officials from a wide variety of federal agencies, including the FBI, DHS, the State Department, Treasury, and others, to address not only hate crimes, but all issues of discrimination, profiling, and other civil rights issues facing these communities. Attorney General Gonzales has attended two of these meetings, and has himself held a meeting with these community leaders. I have dedicated substantial resources within the Civil Rights Division to ensuring that prosecuting these hate crimes, bringing discrimination suits, and engaging in outreach to the community, continues to remain a priority.

Since 9/11, we have now investigated more than 700 cases, and brought federal charges against 35 defendants, and obtained 32 convictions to date. We also have assisted state and local law enforcement in bringing more than 150 of these prosecutions.

Our prosecutions of hate crimes and our enforcement of anti-discrimination laws send a powerful message that in our country we will not tolerate angry individuals lashing out at innocents because of deeds done by those of a particular ethnic group, race or religion. We are all Americans, and we were all injured by the attacks of 9/11. And we are equally at risk from the danger of future terrorist attacks. We are all in this together.

We also have been active on the civil side of the litigation ledger. 9/11 backlash has included not only hate crimes, but increased levels of discrimination against Muslims, Arabs, and South Asians.

For example, on the afternoon of September 11, a Marriot hotel in Iowa sent a fax cancelling its agreement to host the Midwest Federation of American Syrian-Lebanese Clubs’s annual convention, claiming it had double-booked. We investigated, and reached a settlement agreement with the hotel to provide an apology and $100,000 to the Syrian-Lebanese Club, and requiring training for all employees.

Similarly, on September 23, 2001, a Sikh man at a restaurant was told by a manager that he would have to remove his turban, due to a policy that barred hats – other than baseball caps and cowboy hats. Prior to September 11, he had worn his turban at the restaurant without objection. We reached a settlement requiring posting of nondiscrimination signs, training for employees, monitoring, and compensation

Protecting our civil Rights is the specialty of the lawyers and staff at the Civil Rights Division, as it is for their counterparts at ADC. I have had the great honor of working with the people of ADC toward a more just society, and think this relationship has yielded great fruit. But working together toward civil rights is not just for specialists; it is the obligation of all Americans. Civil rights ultimately are about how we live together as human beings, and respecting each others’ inherent dignity, despite coming from a range of backgrounds with diverse faiths and traditions.

As President Bush said in his first inaugural address, the American story is “a story of flawed and fallible people, united across the generations by grand and enduring ideals. The grandest of these ideals is an unfolding American promise that everyone belongs, that everyone deserves a chance, that no insignificant person was ever born. . . . America has never been united by blood or birth or soil. We are bound by ideals that move us beyond our backgrounds, lift us above our interests and teach us what it means to be citizens. Every child must be taught these principles. Every citizen must uphold them. And every immigrant, by embracing these ideals, makes our country more, not less, American.” As an immigrant to this country myself, I am always profoundly moved when I think back upon these remarks.

We are a nation at war. We are currently engaged in struggle against those who are willing to commit large-scale acts of violence against civilians. They commit these atrocious acts as part of a forcible effort to turn their totalitarian, theocratic vision into chilling reality. As a nation, we rightly and uniformly condemn this militant extremism. But as a nation, we just as vigorously condemn any resultant backlash against innocents.

The challenges for our civil rights that this tension has brought about will require the same dedication and moral clarity of judges, legislators, government officials and citizens that was needed during the height of the Civil Rights movement. It is a challenge that we as Americans have no choice but to rise and to meet with the same vigor and dedication as those who went before us. This great nation and its founding principles deserve no less from each and every one of us. We at the Department of Justice look forward to working closely with you and all Americans to achieve our common goals.

Thank you.