Assistant Attorney General For Civil Rights
On March 31, 2009, President Barack Obama nominated Perez to be Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice. The Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on Perez's nomination on April 29, 2009, and on June 4, 2009, the committee voted 17-2 to send Perez's nomination to the full Senate. According to Main Justice, an independent, non-partisan news Web site, Perez's nomination languished for several months amid questions by Republican senators about his record on immigration matters and by controversy over the Obama Justice Department's dismissal of a voter intimidation case against the militant New Black Panther Party. Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) characterized the opposition as foot-dragging and "posturing for narrow special interests." The full United States Senate ultimately confirmed Perez on October 6, 2009 in a bipartisan 72-22 vote. Only two Senators spoke out against the nomination: Tom Coburn (R-OK) and David Vitter (R-LA).
Perez revamped Justice Department efforts in pursuing federal settlements and consent agreements under the Americans With Disabilities Act. One of Perez's main focuses was on the discrimination of individuals with HIV/AIDS, saying that it is "critical that we continue to work to eradicate discriminatory and stigmatizing treatment towards individuals with HIV based on unfounded fears and stereotypes."
Perez oversaw the division responsible of the implementation, and training of local enforcement in response of the passage of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act; including overseeing the first hate crime conviction under the law, in the racially motivated murder of James Craig Anderson. Perez endorsed the Employment Non-Discrimination Act in 2009, citing it one of his "top priorities," and at his first testimony after being confirmed as Assistant Attorney General, he said that "LGBT individuals not being currently protected against discrimination in the workplace is perhaps one of the most gaping holes in our nation’s civil rights laws."
Read more about this topic: Thomas Perez
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—Victoria Gray, African American civil rights activist. As quoted in This Little Light of Mine, ch. 3, by Hay Mills (1993)
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