Andrew Napolitano Says Governments Denied Blacks’ Rights In The Past

By Michael Combier-Talk Radio News Service

Former Judge Andrew P. Napolitano used an 1857 Supreme Court decision as a metaphor to argue that American governments have legally suspended the rights of Blacks for more than 300 years.

Judge Napolitano cited Dred Scott v. Sanford, a decision that ruled that people of African descent were not U.S. citizens, and therefore not entitled to constitutional protections.

Napolitano’s remarks came during a presentation for his new book, “Dred Scott’s Revenge: A Legal History of Race and Freedom in America,” Thursday at the CATO Institute in Washington D.C.

Said Napolitano, “a series of governments [state and federal] have not withstanding the lofty words of the Declaration of Independence...and some efforts to incorporate those ideas in the Constitution...A government that would think it could write any law, enact any policy and, enforce any program not withstanding its utter rejection of the natural law.”

To prove his point, Napolitano added that the Supreme Court upheld the Jim Crow laws of Southern states in Plessy v. Ferguson.

“These are examples, historic and modern, of government thinking that it can do away with the natural law, that it can suspend the free will of a class of human beings.”

For Napolitano, the Constitution is “a glorious liberty document, with obviously some defect in it. It is for the first time in the history of the world the inverse of the way liberty came about...It is the greatest document for the preservation of human liberty ever written in the Western world.”

Looking good- Obama campaign to target voters in barbershops

The Obama campaign hosted a conference call to unveil a new, unique voter registration initiative geared towards reaching out to unregistered voters in the African American community. The call featured appearances by Obama campaign senior advisor Rick Wade as well as actress Kerry Washington and actor Blair Underwood.

Obama's team discussed how they plan to connect with African American voters by recognizing the importance of barbers and beauticians in the lives of young people. They said they will pay particular attention to the black communities of Detroit, Atlanta, and Jacksonville, although noted that their "barbershop program" is a nationwide effort to mobilize voters.

The campaign explained that their focus on targeting community- based small businesses, will teach the "boys who become men" in barbershops about politics. Also, the campaign will provide barbers in African American communities with videos telling "the story of Senator Obama" to be played while people are getting their hair cut.

Immigration not to blame for high unemployment among blacks

Immigration moderately impacts the employment of young black men, according to the presentation presented to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. At the Economic Effect of Immigration on Black Workers briefing, Dr. Gordon Hanson, Professor of Economics UCSD, said that in 1960, 75% of black men were unemployed, versus 68% unemployment in the year 2000. The decline is accompanied by a rapid increase in incarceration, and he would expect any increase of immigration to impact blacks more because they have less education.

Dr. Gerald D. Jaynes, Professor of Economics and African-American Studies at Yale University, said that data forced him to conclude that negative effects of immigration on the employment of blacks were mostly absent and modest at worst for only a segment of lowest skilled workers. More so than immigration, having a significant minority of disadvantaged young people persisting in low educational achievement, dropping out of high school, and engaging in criminal activity are likely to blame for low employment rates.

Dr. Vernon Briggs, Emeritus Professor of Labor Economics at Cornell University, disagreed. Immigrants, he said, take low skilled jobs from native born blacks, and an enormous amount of those immigrants are illegal. A major problem is that a high skilled person can take a low skilled job, but it doesn't work the other way around. In competition for employment, illegal immigrants are likely to be hired because they can be paid less.

Overall, there are negative effects on the employment of blacks by immigration, but the effects are not major, Dr. Harry Holzer said, Professor of Public Policy at Georgetown University. People do seem to prefer immigrants to native born blacks, he said, but part of that may be that blacks don't appear to be interested in working certain jobs, such as jobs in agriculture. The solution, he said, has six parts. We must improve education, enhance youth mentoring, improve occupational training, reduce incarceration rates (and the barriers to work faced by ex-offenders), extend the Earned Income Tax Credit to childless adults including non-custodial fathers, and lastly reform child support regulations.

The general consensus in the room was that although immigration does have some impact, lack of education and skills are the main problem causing unemployment in young black men.