Wherein Preet Bharara becomes an unlikely source for racial justice.
The effectiveness of Eric Holder and Loretta Lynch — the first African-American Attorneys General — at promoting racial justice will be debated by history. But, at least they tried. We can expect no such effort to achieve equality under the law from A.G. Jeff Sessions.
On Wednesday, the DOJ fired a parting shot, if you will. the Justice Department filed papers in Manhattan alleging JP Morgan Chase violated the U.S. Fair Housing Act and the Equal Credit Opportunity Act. It says that JPM charged African-American and Hispanic home buyers higher rates and fees on their mortgages. From the Huffington Post:
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The alleged discrimination involved so-called wholesale loans that were made through mortgagebrokers the bank used to originate loans, the complaint said. Chase allowed brokers to change rates charged for loans from those initially set based on objective credit-related factors, the complaint said.
Chase did not require mortgage brokers to document the reasons for changing rates and failed to address racial discrimination, encouraging it to continue, the complaint said.
The alleged activity took place between 2006 and 2009.
When you wonder why minorities and activists are freaking out over the Jeff Sessions appointment, it’s because of cases like this. I don’t actually think Jeff Sessions will bring back slavery — I mean, I’m sure he would if he could, but we have an amendment to stop him.
But racism isn’t just slurs and threats of violence from Confederate Flag waving MAGAers. It’s more subtle and insidious than that. Systemic prejudice, like what is JPM is alleged of doing here, is the bigger problem than some powerless bigots at a Trump rally.
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Where’s Sessions going to be on these issues? What is he going to do stop the practical implementation of racism? Is he even going to look for it? Will he prosecute it when he sees it? Hell, Jeff Sessions probably thinks it’s okay to charge higher mortgage rates to blacks and Latinos. We’re all just shiftless credit risks to his eyes.
Nobody believes Jeff Sessions will fight for anything other than white authority. Even Sessions’s supporters think that he’s here to make the world safe for white men looking to conduct their business without pesky, “politically correct,” prohibitions against discrimination and antisemitism. That’s why they support him.
But there still is some hope that the Justice Department will not let white people run roughshod over the rights and equality of non-white citizens. Look at where this last case was filed. Manhattan. That’s Preet Bharara country. I know, I know, treating Preet Bharara like a source for racial justice is itself an indication of how steep the drop off is going to be under Trump’s administration.
But, love him or hate him, Preet gives zero f**ks about the higher powers in D.C. Sessions will have a hard time getting Bharara on the white power page.
DOJ Sues JPMorgan For Racial Discrimination [Huffington Post]
Elie Mystal is an editor of Above the Law and the Legal Editor for More Perfect. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter, or at [email protected]. He will resist.