WASHINGTON -- A fringe group of House Republicans announced this week they will try to make Attorney General Eric Holder the first cabinet official to be impeached since the reconstruction era. One of the reasons? He didn't defend an unconstitutional law.
One of the articles of impeachment against Holder backed by a small group of House Republicans, including Reps. Michele Bachmann (Minn.), Ted Yoho (Fla.) and Pete Olson (Texas), involves the Justice Department's decision not to defend key provisions of the Defense of Marriage Act in federal court. The Supreme Court, of course, agreed with the Obama administration's conclusion that the federal law recognizing only opposite-sex marriages was unconstitutional, and it struck down a portion of the law over the summer.
The Republicans also targeted Holder's decision not to sue Washington and Colorado for deciding to regulate rather than criminalize marijuana, arguing that he's not enforcing the Controlled Substances Act.
There are no signs that House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) will act on the resolution, Politico reports, and his office is referring calls elsewhere. House Republicans previously voted to find Holder in contempt of Congress because the Justice Department refused to turn over certain documents related to the botched ATF operation known as Fast and Furious. Holder said earlier this year the vote didn't have a big impact on him because he had no respect for anyone who voted to hold him in contempt.
During a visit to St. Louis on Thursday as part of his Smart on Crime push, Holder criticized the "meaningless partisan" impeachment effort and said the resolution included "factually incorrect" allegations.
“I have serious things, serious things that I have to engage in," Holder said. "That is how I’m going to be spending my time and I’m not going to be devoting much attention to those kinds of things."
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