More Backlash Against AG Garland’s Assault on Parents and the Constitution

As Mark Levin said Sunday night on Life, Liberty and Levin, your liberty, your speech, your freedom of association, your school districts, neighborhoods and communities β all are under assault right now by the Biden administration and, specifically, the attorney general of the United States.
That would be Merrick Garland, and the Department of βJusticeβ he leads.
The Coordinated Attack to Suppress Parents and Taxpayers
The First Amendment guarantees Americans the freedom to associate freely and also βto petition the government for a redress of grievances.β But today, if youβre the angry parent of a child being indoctrinated to think of himself either as privileged (the oppressor) or victimized (the oppressed) because of the color of his skin, and you go to your local school board meeting and protest that, and maybe you impress someone as being a little too strident β itβs that subjective β you are lumped into the same category with domestic terrorists like Timothy McVeigh.
βThe First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, the Bill Of Rights,β Levin said, βis under attack by the attorney general of the United States, Merrick Garland, and his staff.β Weβve been watching this unfolding drama closely and could not agree more.
I would say that if there is any effort to intimidate individuals based on their views, it is the action prescribed by this memo.
Levin notes that Bidenβs staff and others at the White House have joined them in βa coordinated attack to try and silence parents and taxpayers, the citizens of this nation who elect their school board, who send their children into these classrooms.β How dare these parents protest the leftist rot that their kids are being force-fed.
Abusing the Patriot Act
Weβve told you about the memo from Merrick Garland to the Criminal Division, the National Security Division, and Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department, plus the Executive Office of U.S. Attorneys and the FBI, telling them to treat this kind of protest as domestic terrorism, when not one example of violent or threatening behavior was cited.
Through the Patriot Act, which was enacted to fight real terrorism after 9/11 and never intended for this purpose, Garland’s memo opens up parents to being spied on and having their associations tracked. A simple βhotlineβ phone call can lead to the FBI arriving at their door for an βambushβ interview.
As Levin points out, the memo specifically asserts that β…[constitutional] protection does not extend to threats of violence or efforts to intimidate individuals based on their views.β I would say that if there is any effort to intimidate individuals based on their views, it is the action prescribed by this memo.
Merrick Garland surely understands that the federal government has no jurisdiction over this whatsoever. With each passing day, it gets harder to believe that this man was nominated to be a Supreme Court justice, and we can thank God he didnβt get a lifetime appointment. Still, we have to deal with him for now, and an organization called America First Legal helping to lead the way.
Investigating Garland’s Abuse of Power for Partisan Ends
Reed Rubinstein, senior counsel for that organization, has written a letter to DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz calling for an investigation βregarding potential improprieties related to the October 4, 2021, Attorney Generalβs Memorandum.β This is just what is called for, and highly recommended reading. You can find it here.
The letter describes discussions with βstakeholdersβ (National School Boards Association, etc.) held at the White House in early September βregarding avenues for potential federal action against parentsβ between a key Biden Domestic Policy Council official and White House staff members, and also with βat least one political appointee in the Civil Rights Divisionβ of the DOJ. Concerns were expressed βregarding the potential partisan political impact of parent mobilization and organization around school issues in the upcoming midterm elections.β
Why should anyone be surprised that this is really all about politics? And do they really think that silencing parents is going to help them going into the next election? How out of touch can they be?
Please Support The Stream: Equipping Christians to Think Clearly About the Political, Economic, and Moral Issues of Our Day.
According to this letter, it was βin or about mid-Septemberβ that work began on AG Garlandβs memo. Coincidence? I think not. The letter suggests it was βpre-coordinated.β
Sure, It’s Protected Speech, But Stopping It is a White House Priority
DOJ staff apparently expressed concerns that there was no authority granted for this under federal law (correct), and also that the parentsβ protests were constitutionally protected (also correct). But it was said that THIS WAS A WHITE HOUSE PRIORITY. I guess that meant they would just have to find a way to violate these parentsβ rights.
The letter goes on; I hope youβll read the whole thing, as it nails the DOJ on what they and the White House have been up to.
Garland’s Family Profits from CRT
Levin also brought up the attorney generalβs startling conflict of interest, which, as you know, is that his son-in-law founded a multimillion-dollar company called Panorama that supplies just the sort of βeducationalβ materials that these parents are protesting!
Make no mistake, βwokeβ training materials and lecturing are a huge industry, and when you consider the corporate, government and education markets, some grifters β I mean, content creators, are making a freaking fortune from this garbage. Panoramaβs materials are already used by 25 percent of the schools in this country. Instead of recusing himself, which he absolutely should have done, Garland signed the disgusting DOJ memo himself.
Hereβs the summary at Fox News.
Alan Dershowitz had a strong reaction to Garlandβs memo, saying, βIβll defend anybody who is chilled in their free speech.β He said that sending out letters and calling for FBI investigations was βextreme.β As Newsmax reports, Dershowitz has also come out strongly against race-based teaching in schools, calling it βpropagandaβ and saying that protests against it should not be considered domestic terrorism.
The organization Parents Defending Education, which we have enthusiastically profiled here, responded that the attorney general βhas declared a war on parents.β His conflict of interest regarding Panorama has not been lost on them, either.
In case you missed my comments in the wake of Garlandβs memo here they are.
Amazing What FBI Will and Will Not Do
Also, the day after Garland sent his memo, Mollie Hemingway went on Fox News’ Special Report to observe how out of whack the DOJβs priorities are. βIt is just amazing what the Department of Justice and the FBI will do and what they wonβt do,β she said. They were βbasically nowhere to be foundβ last year during all the riots that killed dozens of people and burned and vandalized federal buildings, local police precincts and hundreds of American businesses. And now theyβre going after parents who are βjustifiably concerned about all sorts of things happening in their school…β
America First Legal has it right when they say that for the Biden administration, this is about holding onto political power. But the ill-advised move appears to be backfiring and could be this administrationβs undoing. Let it be so.
Mike Huckabee is the former governor of Arkansas and longtime conservative commentator on issues in culture and current events. A New York Times best-selling author, he hosts the weekly talk show Huckabee on TBN.
Originally published at MikeHuckabee.com. Reprinted with Permission.