Attorney General Loretta Lynch is asking President-elect Trump to build on the progress made by the Obama administration on reforming the criminal justice system.
In prepared remarks, Lynch — the country’s first African-American woman to serve as attorney general — indirectly asked Trump to continue to “bring justice to those who feel excluded and left behind.”
This effort, which President Obama spearheaded during his two terms in the White House, is “one of the greatest civil rights challenges of our time,” Lynch said.
“And the work to meet that challenge begun under this administration must continue into the next. … Regardless of our political beliefs, we should be able to agree, as Americans, that poverty is not a crime. We should be able to agree, as Americans, that justice is not a commodity to be bought and sold. We should be able to agree, as Americans, that the law should empower the most vulnerable – not oppress them,” Lynch said in a speech to a crowd at the Eighth Annual Judge Thomas A. Flannery Lecture on Tuesday night in Washington.
Trump, who campaigned on being the “law and order” candidate, is expected to drastically change up the Justice Department. The Republican also campaigned on increasing anti-crime efforts, such as stop and frisk.
Regardless of any changes coming to the Justice Department and the criminal justice system as a whole under Trump, Lynch called on those in attendance continue to work for a change.
“I believe that we can pass laws and craft policies that embody our highest ideals. But that will not happen automatically. It never has. It will only happen if people like you and I continue fighting for our nation’s oldest principles and its highest ideals. I urge you to do just that,” Lynch said. “I urge you to use your positions of authority and influence to write and to speak on behalf of the voiceless and the marginalized. Devote yourself to making justice a fact for those who until now have only known it as a myth. Give some of your time to pro bono causes and challenge your colleagues to do the same. If you are a professor, impress upon your students the urgency of this cause. … We are all created equal; and that justice is not a luxury for a few, but the birthright of all.”
