[JURIST] Federal enforcement of civil rights laws declined sharply during the Bush administration, according to a new study released by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a non-partisan research center housed at Syracuse University. According to the TRAC report, federal prosecutors filed charges for violations of civil rights laws against only 84 defendants in 2003, down from 159 in 1999. Complaints received by the Justice Department during the Bush administration have remained relatively constant. TRAC reports that charges against terrorism suspects, and charges on weapons violations and immigration violations all increased during the same time period. Cox News Service has more. As previously reported on JURIST's Paper Chase, the US Commission on Civil Rights earlier this month failed to reach a consensus on whether to adopt its report [PDF] on the Bush administration's civil rights record. According to Commission's draft report, the Bush administration had not "defined a clear agenda nor made civil rights a priority."
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