Know Your Obama Underlings, Part 2

Editor's Note: The Rapier will, prior to the inauguration, provide a daily installment with a brief profile of one of Barack Obama's nominees to a cabinet or high-level administration post. This way, you'll know who to blame...
-AuH2O
Today's Profile
Attorney General: Eric H. Holder, Jr.

Born January 21, 1951. Holder is a former Judge of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, United States Attorney and Deputy Attorney General of the United States. He grew up in Queens, to parents with roots in Barbados. Holder attended public school until the age of 10. When entering the 4th grade he was selected to participate in a program for intellectually-gifted students. He went on to attend Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan and attended Columbia University, where he played freshman basketball. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in American history in 1973. Holder also received his law degree from Columbia Law School, graduating in 1976.

After graduating from law school, Holder joined the U.S. Justice Department's new "Public Integrity Section" during an interval lasting from 1976 to 1988. During his time there, he assisted in the prosecution of Democratic Congressman John Jenrette for bribery discovered in the Abscam sting operation. In 1988, President Ronald Reagan appointed Holder to serve on the Bench as a Judge of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. Holder stepped down from the bench in 1993 to accept an appointment for U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia from President Bill Clinton. At the beginning of his tenure, he oversaw the conclusion of the corruption case against Dan Rostenkowski, part of the Congressional Post Office Scandal. He was a U.S. Attorney until his elevation to Deputy Attorney General in 1997.


Clinton nominated Holder to be the next Deputy Attorney General under Janet Reno. During his confirmation hearing, Holder's opposition to the death penalty was questioned, but he pledged his intention to cooperate with the current laws and Attorney General Janet Reno, saying, "I am not a proponent of the death penalty, but I will enforce the law as this Congress gives it to us." Holder briefly served as Acting Attorney General under President George W. Bush, until the Senate confirmed Bush's nominee, John Ashcroft.


In his final days with the Clinton administration, Holder was involved with Clinton's last-minute pardon of fugitive and Democratic contributor Marc Rich. Between November 2000 and January 2001, Jack Quinn, Rich's lawyer and former White House Counsel from 1995-96, had been contacting Holder, testing the waters for the political viability of a presidential pardon. After presenting his case to Holder in a November phone call and a last minute January 17th letter, Quinn arranged a phone call between the White House and Holder, asking the Deputy Attorney General to share his opinion on the Rich pardon. Ultimately, Holder gave Clinton a "neutral, leaning towards favorable" opinion of the pardon.

Since 2001, Holder has worked as an attorney at Covington & Burling in Washington, D.C.,representing clients such as Merck and the National Football League. He represented the NFL during its dog fighting investigation against Michael Vick.

While D.C. v. Heller was being heard by the Supreme Court in 2008, Holder joined the Reno-led amicus brief, which urged the Supreme Court to uphold Washington, D.C.'s handgun ban and said the position of the Department of Justice, from Franklin Roosevelt through Bill Clinton, was that the Second Amendment does not protect an individual right to keep and bear arms for purposes unrelated to a State’s operation of a well-regulated militia. Holder said that overturning the 1976 law "opens the door to more people having more access to guns and putting guns on the streets."