Outgoing attorney general Eric Holder sat down with Bill Keller and Tim Golden of the Marshall Project for an interview that spanned a range of topics, including prison reform, marijuana, and the death penalty—and included some praise for Harry Reid’s favorite punching-bag along the way.
Holder’s interviewers asked whether he was aware that the Koch brothers had made a hefty donation to the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers to help procure defense for those who cannot afford it.
Holder had not heard of the donation, but said, “That’s a good thing to hear – people from very different places along the ideological spectrum understanding that we have to make our criminal justice system more fair.”
“There are way too many people on the civil side, as well as the criminal side, who don’t have their legal needs met. There’s a justice gap,” said Holder. “And to hear that the Koch brothers would be contributing money in that way is something that I think should be applauded.”
On marijuana laws, Holder praised the administration’s decision not to preempt legalization in Colorado and Washington: “It took guts for the president to do what he did, what we did together.”
He stood by his claim that he does not have the authority to change marijuana’s much-disputed classification as a Schedule 1 substance. According to this rating, marijuana is as dangerous as heroin, and more dangerous than methamphetamines and cocaine.
“I think the question of how these drugs get scheduled and how they are ultimately treated is something for Congress to work on,” Holder maintained.
Yet the Controlled Substances Act clearly allows the attorney general to place drugs in a less restrictive category, at the very least. And as the Washington Post’s Christopher Ingraham has since pointed out, it makes little sense for Holder to make this argument at a time when the administration is liberally wielding executive power in multiple other areas. Additionally, Ingraham notes, the DEA has moved other drug scheduling around this year with no complaints.
And with public opinion and Congress increasingly on the side of legalizing marijuana, Holder’s reluctance to do anything to ease marijuana restrictions is particularly baffling.
Read the full interview here.
