A leading civil rights group on Tuesday denounced the Trump administration’s delay of legal cases to overhaul the Baltimore Police Department and challenge a voter ID law in Texas — two lawsuits that were major efforts of the Obama-era Justice Department. Senate Democrats, meanwhile, pushed back a confirmation vote on Senator Jeff Sessions as attorney general.
Just hours after President Trump was inaugurated, the Justice Department on Friday filed requests to delay scheduled hearings in the two cases. Kristen Clarke, the executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, called the requests “astonishing.”