Leahy Seeks Information
On Justice Department’s Efforts
To Ease Strain On Jena Community

WASHINGTON (Wednesday, September 26) – Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) today sent the following letter to the Acting Attorney General seeking information on the Justice Department’s efforts relating to events in Jena, Louisiana.

In the letter, Leahy sought information on the role of the Department’s long-established Community Relations Service.  The Community Relations Service was created in the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with the important mission of helping to prevent civil disorder and racial tensions.  It is the Federal Government’s traditional "peacemaker" in community conflicts arising from racial tensions.  

Below is the text of the letter.

September 26, 2007

The Honorable Peter D. Keisler
Acting Attorney General
United States Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20530

Dear Mr. Keisler:

Please advise me and the Judiciary Committee what is being done by the Department of Justice’s Community Relations Service to help resolve the situation in Jena, Louisiana.  I would expect that as the Department’s “peacemaker” for community conflicts and tensions arising from race, the Community Relations Service has been assisting the State and local government in reducing and preventing further racial tensions in that area and resolving community conflicts and tensions arising from discriminatory practices.

I understand from your budget materials that the Community Relations Service is often called upon “to address racial harassment and violence in elementary and secondary schools and on college and university campuses.”  Please let me know whether the Community Relations Service has been working to resolve tensions in Jena, when and how it became involved, and what its involvement has been.  If it has not been involved, please explain why not and whether, in the judgment of the Department’s leadership, it might serve a useful role.

Sincerely, 

PATRICK LEAHY
Chairman