NEWS FLASH

DOJ Responds To Republican Judge’s Partisan Tantrum | The Department of Justice’s letter responding to Republican Judge Jerry Smith’s partisan tantrum earlier this week is available here. At first glance, the most striking thing about it is that it is signed by Attorney General Eric Holder, not by the junior Department of Justice attorney who was unfortunate enough to be in the line of fire when Judge Smith decided to place partisanship ahead of judicial neutrality. This is a classy move by Holder. It was fundamentally unfair for Smith to place a junior lawyer in the line of fire during his own partisan shot at President Obama — hopefully Holder’s actions will insulate her if Smith loses his temper again and decides to start issuing unwarranted sanctions because he deems Holder’s letter insufficiently useful to the Republican Party.