Give Maryland A.G.’s office the power to enforce civil rights laws
Civil rights violations occur every day in virtually every sphere of our lives, from where we live to how we work. From the obstacles we face accessing health care to whether we are protected — or brutalized — by those charged with keeping us safe. From who bears the brunt of environmental harms to how we cast our votes to elect our leaders.
A Black couple’s home is appraised at $472,000. When a second appraiser is led to believe a white family owns the house, he values it at $750,000.
An abortion clinic outside Baltimore faces break-ins and harassment, including the stalking of an administrator’s child. The incidents are among a recent 128% increase in assaults against abortion clinics and patients.
A Maryland employer terminates a longtime, high-performing employee who experiences hearing and vision loss from a genetic disorder.
A Maryland hospital cancels a surgical procedure and refuses to treat a transgender man.
A female warehouse dispatcher at a Baltimore County auto dealership is fired after she objects to receiving a lower salary than her male counterpart.
Residents of a predominantly Black neighborhood are exposed disproportionately to toxic fumes from Baltimore’s biggest single source of air pollution.
The city’s low-lying areas most vulnerable to increased flooding and sewage backups from climate change are disproportionately communities of color.
And our hearts break again as another Black man dies at the hands of police.
Safeguarding our fundamental rights has been a long and painful struggle, beginning with the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Fair Housing Act of 1968, which were conceived to combat racial discrimination, though more recently have been expanded to also target discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. The country has made slow and uneven progress, and we remain far from achieving our founding and aspirational ideals of liberty, equity and justice for all. Those who are the targets of discrimination, who for generations have been the focus of dehumanizing bias and hatred, suffer the most. But none of us is better off in a world still so distant from our ideals.
Yet we would not have achieved even this imperfect progress — where we constantly fall short but keep striving to do better — without the critical and sometimes heroic efforts of those given the authority and responsibility to enforce these laws. Recognizing that a law in and of itself cannot bring about reform unless accompanied by robust enforcement, Congress created the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice in 1957 at the same time it enacted the first civil rights statute of the modern era. In the nearly 70 years since, the U.S. Attorney General has deployed this enforcement arm to stop all manner of discrimination, from Alabama landlords steering Black tenants to different housing projects; to patterns and practices of police misconduct and racial bias in Ferguson, Missouri; to denying a transgender student access to educational facilities in California.
But the Department of Justice cannot possibly stand vigilant against every act of discrimination across our 50 states, or by itself protect the rights of 332 million people, including 6 million Marylanders. Successful federal enforcement must be supported and reind by state law enforcement partners. A nearby example of what a difference additional enforcement can make is former District of Columbia Attorney General Karl Racine’s
$10 million penalty imposed on three real estate firms in the largest housing discrimination case in U.S. history. Over half of this country’s state attorneys general have some degree of authority to enforce civil rights and/or investigate patterns or practices of law enforcement misconduct. It is time for Maryland to join their ranks.
We have an exemplary Commission on Civil Rights in Maryland that does terrific work addressing individual complaints of discrimination. But the Office of the Attorney General must become a partner in its efforts. Just as the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission works in tandem with the Department of Justice, each functioning as a force multiplier for the other, so too should my office work alongside the commission to effect broader and more systemic change. We will be able to build upon the commission’s work on behalf of individual Marylanders to root out widespread discrimination on behalf of all Marylanders.
To this end, I have asked the General Assembly, as a top priority for my first session as attorney general, to pass legislation affording my office this authority.
We want to do our part. We must help in the continuing struggle to create a world in which children grow up untouched by any form of discrimination. A world in which they are free to choose where to live and who to love. With equal rights to clean air and water, good jobs, adequate health care, and protection from harm. With our full support for who they are and who they want to be.