U.S. Department of Justice opens racial discrimination investigation against the Hennepin County Attorney's Office
Late Saturday night, the U.S. Department of Justice announced it was opening a racial discrimination investigation against the Hennepin County Attorney's Office for a new policy that would take an individual's race into consideration when making plea deals.
In a letter from the DOJ to Hennepin County, the agency states that it intends to see if the attorney's office "is engaged in a pattern or practice of depriving persons of rights, privileges or immunities secured or protected by the Constitution or laws of the United States." The letter also says the agency will be particularly focusing their investigation on whether or not the attorney's office engages in illegal consideration of race in its prosecutorial decision making.
The DOJ says its decision to open this investigation is based on a new policy from the Hennepin County Attorney's Office called, "Negotiations Policy for Cases Involving Adult Defendants," which directs prosecutors to consider racial identity when formulating plea offers.
The DOJ quotes the policy in its letter reading:
"Racial identity...should be part of the overall analysis," and that prosecutors, "should be identifying and addressing racial disparities at decision points, as appropriate."
The Hennepin County Attorney's Office announced this new policy change at the end of April via memo.
In the memo, Mary Moriarty's office said that "proposed resolutions should consider the person charged as a whole person, including their racial identity and age."
On April 28, a spokesperson for the Hennepin County Attorney's Office said in a statement they are trying to address longstanding racial disparities.
"We would neglect our duty of pursuing fair and just outcomes if we pretended these didn't exist," the spokesperson said.
Spokesperson Daniel Borgertpoepping said the attorney's office received an email copy of the letter on Monday morning.
"Our office will cooperate with any resulting investigation, and we're fully confident our policy complies with the law," Borgertpoepping said in a written statement.
Public reaction to Moriarty's memo
Rachel Moran, a law professor at the University of St. Thomas, said the investigation likely lacks merit.
"The Trump administration generally is taking aggressive tactics toward all manner of entities that consider race," Moran said.
Jill Hasday, a law professor at the University of Minnesota, said the way Moriarty's policy is written is unconstitutional.
"The constitutional problem, in my view with the current policy, is that it's telling line attorneys to take race into account as one of the factors in deciding what plea bargain to offer," Hasday said.
Hamline law professor David Schultz said if the investigation reveals issues with Moriarty's policy, it could result in a civil rights lawsuit against her office.
Schultz said the U.S. Supreme Court has made it clear that considerations of race are unconstitutional, regarding factors like employment and college admissions.
Schultz added that he doesn't see either Trump or Moriarty backing down.
"I could very well see Moriarty winning this politically, in a sense that a lot of voters in Hennepin County rally behind her, they support her as an effort to oppose Trump," he said.
