Notre Dame Pres. Emeritus Calls on Conyers & Holder to Meet with Embattled Legal Reform Activists

[merh]

Notre Dame President Emeritus Calls on House Judiciary Chairman and U.S. Attorney General to Meet with Embattled Legal Reform Activist

Crown Point, IN (PRWEB) October 6, 2009 -- Reverend Theodore M. Hesburgh, President Emeritus of the University of Notre Dame at South Bend, Indiana, recently wrote U.S. Representative John Conyers, Jr. and Attorney General Eric Holder on behalf of Notre Dame graduate and good government advocate, Zena Crenshaw-Logal. Noting that he welcomed President Barack Obama to the university's campus for its 2009 commencement address but had yet to meet them, Hesburgh encouraged Representative Conyers and Attorney General Holder to meet with Zena, describing her as "a young woman with whom I have much in common."

Reverend or Father Hesburgh as he is also known, has been a priest of the Congregation of the Holy Cross since 1943. He served as Notre Dame's president from 1952 to 1987; accepted sixteen presidential appointments in the interim, including to chair the U.S. Civil Rights Commission; remains a national and international figure at more than 90 years of age; and is arguably the best known educator of the twentieth century. Hesburgh's 150 or so honorary degrees stand as a Guinness Book record. Added to his awards are the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Congressional Gold Medal, and West Point's distinguished Sylvanus Thayer Award.

Zena wrote Father Hesburgh after he spoke this summer at a dinner honoring her and others during Notre Dame's "2009 Black Alumni Triennial Reunion". Zena's letter to Hesburgh overviews problems following her public challenge, "with substantial community support (of alleged) bias by courts of Lake County, Indiana against minority lawyers prosecuting relatively complex, potentially lucrative personal injuries claims." Zena asserts "(i)n the process our clients experienced staggering losses in increasingly unpopular personal injury matters such as civil rights cases and marginalized victories in routine personal injury disputes such as those premised on minor auto accidents."

The specter of judicial and political bias prompted the House Judiciary Committee, chaired by Representative Conyers, to investigate the U.S. Department of Justice. In an October 2007 letter, political insider Paul Minor made an impassioned plea, claiming only Conyer's committee ". . . can help (him, i.e. Minor) prove that the Bush Justice Department's prosecution of (him) and Justice Oliver Diaz, Jr., and Judges Wes Teel and John Whitfield was politically motivated." The U.S. House of Representatives is addressing the high profile Mississippi prosecutions and convictions as evidenced by a joint hearing this summer on "Allegations of Selective Prosecution: The Erosion of Public Confidence in Our Federal Justice System".

more @ http://www.prweb.com/releases/2009/10/prweb2993174.htm

Link to the Letter to Conyers and Holder
http://www.popular4people.org/files/Hesburgh_Conyers_Holder.pdf

Our "Obama Lights The Way" campaign is to include candlelight vigils for
justice; periodic, post-inauguration requests that the Justice Department
investigate certain violations of civil, constitutional, and/or human rights; and corresponding evaluations of the Justice Department's user-friendliness or "POPULARITY."
http://www.popular4people.org/OLTW_newsroom.html

[merh]

1. Guess justice for the poor doesn't matter much

:shrug:

[merh]

2. vanity kick

Where are the social justice advocates?