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Thomas E. Perez Esq. MPP


Self Description

February 2010: "Thomas E. Perez was nominated by President Obama to serve as the Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division, and was sworn in on October 8, 2009. Mr. Perez previously served as the Secretary of Maryland's Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation (DLLR), which protects consumers through the enforcement of a wide range of consumer rights laws, including the mortgage setting; enforces workplace safety laws that provide critical safeguards to workers and communities; enforces wage and hour, and other worker protection laws that ensure wage security; and collaborates with businesses and workers to address critical workforce development needs and build a world-class workforce. Mr. Perez was a principal architect of a sweeping package of state lending and foreclosure reforms to address the foreclosure crisis in Maryland.

Mr. Perez has spent his entire career in public service. From 2002 until 2006, he was a member of the Montgomery County Council. He was the first Latino ever elected to the Council, and served as Council President in 2005. Earlier in his career, he spent 12 years in federal public service, most of them as a career attorney with the Civil Rights Division. As a federal prosecutor for the Division, he prosecuted and supervised the prosecution of some of the Department's most high profile civil rights cases, including a hate crimes case in Texas involving a group of white supremacists who went on a deadly, racially motivated crime spree. Mr. Perez later served as Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights under Attorney General Janet Reno. Among other responsibilities, he chaired the interagency Worker Exploitation Task Force, which oversaw a variety of initiatives designed to protect vulnerable workers. He also served as Special Counsel to the late Senator Edward Kennedy, and was Senator Kennedy's principal adviser on civil rights, criminal justice and constitutional issues. For the final two years of the Clinton administration, Mr. Perez served as the Director of the Office for Civil Rights at the United States Department of Health and Human Services. Mr. Perez was a law professor for six years at University of Maryland School of Law and was a part-time professor at the George Washington School of Public Health.

He received a Bachelor's degree from Brown University in 1983, a Master's of Public Policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government in 1987 and a Juris Doctorate from Harvard Law School in 1987. Mr. Perez lives in Maryland with his wife, Ann Marie Staudenmaier, an attorney with the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless, and their three children."

http://www.justice.gov/crt/tp_bio.php

Third-Party Descriptions

December 2011: 'In a letter to the South Carolina government, Thomas E. Perez, the assistant attorney for civil rights, said that allowing the new requirement to go into effect would have “significant racial disparities.”'

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/24/us/justice-department-rejects-voter-id-law-in-south-carolina.html

December 2011: '“Chances are, the victims had no idea they were being victimized,” said Thomas E. Perez, the Justice Department’s assistant attorney general for civil rights. “It was discrimination with a smile.”'

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/22/business/us-settlement-reported-on-countrywide-lending.html

December 2011: 'Assistant Attorney General Thomas E. Perez said [Arizona's Maricopa County Sheriff] office's "systematic disregard for basic constitutional protections has created a wall of distrust between the sheriff's office and large segments of the community."'

http://www.cnn.com/2011/12/15/justice/arizona-justice-department-investigation/index.html

February 2010: '"These racially motivated murders are some of the greatest blemishes on our nation's history," said Thomas E. Perez, assistant attorney general for civil rights. "We owe it to people who were all a part of this struggle to be persistent. . . . If we can solve a number of these cases, that's fantastic. But if we can bring to closure all of these cases, I think this will be well worth the effort."'

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/27/AR2010022703758.html

Relationships

RoleNameTypeLast Updated
Student/Trainee (past or present) Brown University Organization Feb 28, 2010
Organization Executive (past or present) Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Organization Feb 28, 2010
Employee/Freelancer/Contractor (past or present) George Washington University, The (GW) Organization Feb 28, 2010
Student/Trainee (past or present) Harvard University Organization Feb 28, 2010
Student/Trainee (past or present) Kennedy School of Government, The John F. (KSG) Organization Feb 28, 2010
Organization Executive (past or present) Maryland (State Government) Organization Feb 28, 2010
Employee/Freelancer/Contractor (past or present) University of Maryland (College Park) Organization Feb 28, 2010
Opponent (past or present) Sheriff Joe Arpaio Person Dec 15, 2011
Advisor/Consultant to (past or present) Sen. Edward "Ted" Moore Kennedy Person Feb 28, 2010
Appointed/Selected by Pres. Barack Hussein Obama Esq. Person Feb 28, 2010
Subordinate of (past or present) Attorney General Janet Reno Person Feb 28, 2010

Articles and Resources

Date Fairness.com Resource Read it at:
Dec 23, 2011 Justice Dept. Cites Race in Halting Law Over Voter ID

QUOTE: The Justice Department on Friday blocked a new South Carolina law that would require voters to present photo identification, saying the law would disproportionately suppress turnout among eligible minority voters....an aggressive stance in reviewing a wave of new state voting restrictions, largely enacted by Republicans in the name of fighting fraud.

 New York Times
Dec 21, 2011 Countrywide Will Settle a Bias Suit

QUOTE: The Justice Department on Wednesday announced the largest residential fair-lending settlement in history, saying that Bank of America had agreed to pay $335 million to settle allegations that its Countrywide Financial unit discriminated against black and Hispanic borrowers during the housing boom.

 New York Times
Dec 15, 2011 Arizona sheriff faces federal allegations of discrimination against Latinos

QUOTE: Arizona's Maricopa County Sheriff's Office, under the leadership of Sheriff Joe Arpaio, has engaged in systemic discrimination against Latinos...A comprehensive investigation found the practices include "unlawful stops, detentions and arrests of Latinos,"...

 CNN (Cable News Network)
Mar 17, 2011 Justice Department criticizes New Orleans police, vows to fix problems

QUOTE: The Justice Department accused the New Orleans Police Department on Thursday of systematic misconduct that violated the Constitution, saying that officers used excessive force, illegally arrested people and targeted black and gay residents.

 Washington Post
Feb 28, 2010 Civil rights-era killings yield secrets to FBI probe

QUOTE: Three years after the FBI pledged to investigate more than 100 unsolved civil rights killings, the agency is ready to close all but a handful. Investigators say they have solved most of the mysteries behind the cases, but few will result in indictments, given the passage of decades, the deaths of prime suspects and the challenge of gathering evidence.

 Washington Post