AG Harris ignored civil rights
In 2013, while Kamala Harris was serving as its Attorney General, the state of California passed Assembly Bill 556, adding “military and veteran status” to the jurisdiction of our nation’s largest Civil Rights Department. However, the agency she oversaw has yet to implement or enforce military civil rights. This mirrors several federal agencies that either exclude service members and veterans or refuse to meet their statutory obligations.
Will a President Harris make sure military families are no longer deprived of the rights their sacrifices secure?
Assembly Bill 556 (AB 556) was introduced in the California Legislature on February 20, 2013 by Democrat Rudy Salas. The bill created military civil rights in the most populous state in the nation by expanding the groups protected by its 1959 Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA). It did so by inserting “military and veteran status” in the Government Codes establishing the jurisdiction for the largest civil rights agency in the country. AB 556 became law after it was signed by Governor Jerry Brown on October 10, 2013. By adding “military and veteran status” to the CRD statutes, the Legislature created military civil rights in California. But that appears to be all the state and its elected officials did.
Of the seven legislators who sponsored AB556, only Rudy Salas sent out a press release mentioning “[s]everal cases of possible discrimination” prompting the bill. The Los Angeles Times, however, did not report on his statement or investigate the allegations. According to federal enforcement data, at least four California employers were under federal investigation for veteran discrimination in 2013, including Lockheed Martin, Hilton, and United. Californians elected Kamala Harris Attorney General (AG) in 2011, but her Department of Justice remained silent on the civil rights of AB 556. Less than a month prior, she had “applauded” another Assembly Bill making online tracking more transparent. Her 2014 Biennial Report on Major Activities mentions five Assembly Bills, but not AB 556.
Article V, Section 13 of the California Constitution makes it “the duty of the Attorney General to see that the laws of the State are uniformly and adequately enforced.” Even if it wasn’t her responsibility to alert the public to the expansion of civil rights in her state, it is the job of the top cop to enact the will of the Legislature by incorporating “military and veteran status” into enforcement protocols. But as recently as this summer, the Department she oversaw did not include “military and veteran status” in their complaint intake system;
How can vulnerable minorities exercise rights that law enforcement simply ignores?
Of 23 million soldiers, veterans, and their dependents in America, nearly two million reside in California. Between 2014 and Harris’ departure in 2017, a dozen California employers were accused of discrimination by veterans, including Raytheon, Google, and United (again). Their complaints were filed under a 1974 federal affirmative action law called VEVRAA, a statute so poorly written that Retired Justice Sandra Day O’Conner called it “no law at all.” That hasn’t stopped OFCCP from disproportionately denying the merits of complaints from their most vocal constituents; between 2000 and 2020 VEVRAA made up the largest group of complaints filed with OFCCP but were denied up to four times more often than others. At least California makes housing a military civil right; the federal Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity excludes military families from their protections entirely.
Which is worse, to have protections that aren’t enforced, or to have them enforced so disproportionately that your group is seen as crying wolf?
When Kamala Harris selected Tim Walz as her running mate, she elevated military families to the national stage in a way not seen in two decades. To ascend to the office of Commander in Chief, she must address her record on military civil rights. If successful, she will inherit a Department of Justice that, like California’s, is derelict in its duty to enforce civil rights.
In 2019, FBI Director Christopher Wray ignored a Congressional inquiry from Rep. David Trone about not enforcing hate crimes protections under 18 USC 1389. The Soldiers Amendment, as it was called by author Jeff Sessions of Alabama, was part of the Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009, but has never been applied despite several violent hate crimes targeting military families. As a Senator in 2017, Harris opposed Trump’s nomination of Sessions as AG, telling Americans “you deserve an Attorney General who recognizes the full human quality of all people.”
