Editor’s note: The December/January/February 2020 issue of this publication featured the final article written for us by the founder of this publication, Steve Edwards (in this case, with the assistance of Elizabeth Slater). The first portion of that article, titled “Catching Up With… Loretta E. Lynch,” was republished in our September/October/November 2024 issue. The balance of this fascinating and informative article is published here.
GREATEST ACCOMPLISHMENTS AND REGRETS
We asked Attorney General Lynch what she viewed as her greatest accomplishments. First on her list was the FIFA case. In that case, the United States stood as “a barrier against corruption.” A number of her European colleagues have told her it brought back their faith in the rule of law. Attorney General Lynch also cited the work they did on community-police relations, commenting that “we gave people a way to connect and talk through these issues.” Also high on the list was the work the Justice Department did on equality, including marriage equality.
Attorney General Lynch observed: “People think that they’re not being treated fairly, that they’re getting the short end of the stick. I think no community maybe feels that way as strongly as the transgender community does. The bathroom bill, for example. A bill that is marketed to keep kids safe, but that everyone knows is going to do nothing but make transgender kids the target of violence and bullying. I hope that people will look at our efforts to combat that as part of our legacy. I felt like we really changed policy and perception of some important issues for the better. There were people who felt like the government was never on their side, and we turned that around and told them that the government was on their side. We brought many more voices to the table than had ever been there before.”
Attorney General Lynch described the job of Attorney General as “the best job ever.” We asked her whether it was fun, and she replied, “Fun is too small a word. I loved it,” although she hastened to add, “I don’t miss testifying in front of Congress.” She even had nice things to say about her critics: “When you’re fortunate enough to have a cabinet position, you can’t be afraid to evaluate what you have done. It is important to keep that constituent voice open. People who are the maddest at you sometimes have nuggets of truth in there and you need to hear their protest.”
THE CURRENT ADMINISTRATION
Attorney General Lynch used the term “backlash” to describe the current administration, and she noted that she saw the backlash coming during the Obama years: “I saw the sea of backlash growing throughout my term with the administration. There’s always a backlash after significant progress in this country.”
Attorney General Lynch had this to say about the current administration: “This administration I find very troubling. I find their lack of connection to the truth or any scientific advancement to be really harmful to the country overall. I’m very troubled to see the DOJ turning away from some positions or protections for marginalized groups, people of color and the LGBTQ community in particular. The DOJ is where you go when you feel there is nowhere else to go, to know that there is someone who is looking out for you. With this administration, if you don’t support it, you don’t get the benefits of it. That’s not right. If you are in government, you have to lead everybody whether you like them or not. That’s what leading the country is. I do find it troubling that this administration seems to be okay with governing in a narrow sectarian way.”
THE FUTURE OF RACE RELATIONS
Notwithstanding the backlash and the views of the current administration, Attorney General Lynch thinks that race relations in this country are getting better. She described race relations as “very fluid throughout the country,” and she added: “I’m a very optimistic person in general. I really think that we’re so much further ahead now than we were. Even with the division and vitriol that we have now that is based in race, it is at least elevating the issue. People who typically didn’t see these issues before see them now.
“You have always had a group of people in this country who have been complacent about issues of equality – race and gender. We have always had situations where unarmed black men were shot by the police. We now know more about these incidents because people caught them on their cellphone. All of a sudden, as difficult as it was to watch, and as hard as it was to see someone in this encounter with the police, it told a lot of people that this is what people have been talking about for generations. Prior to the last 10 years, people in the complacent group would say to you it can’t be that bad; I can’t imagine a situation where someone would do that to another person. But when it’s in front of you, the reaction is now, I see what you’re saying. Young white people are now seeing what their friends of color go through. That’s an advancement in understanding, in knowledge. It’s a recognition that these are real issues that impact all of us. People now realize that they are part of a society that treats people in a certain way and they have to choose whether they want to be part of that society or not.”
Attorney General Lynch views this as “one way we can use conflict and the level of anger that we see to advance the debate. We have always had periods of intense disagreement – from the founding, people fought duels, people killed each other over stuff like this. People have always been divided but only when you bring that out in the open and talk about it can you really make progress on these issues and this is what we have to do.”
Attorney General Lynch describes herself as an optimist when it comes to racial issues. She expounded: “Hopefully I’m not being naïve. I say I’m an optimist with a hard understanding of how painful these issues are and how painfully they can impact people, particularly people of color. But I say I’m an optimist because I’ve seen the progress that we’ve made. I never thought that it has to be smooth. Everything we have done in this country has been in fits and starts. As an example, it’s been 100 years since women were allowed to vote. Women died for this, but they didn’t include black women in the beginning. Black women didn’t get the right until the civil rights movement. In the beginning, the women’s movement thought that if they added black women to the debate it would kill any chance they had of getting this right. I’m still grateful for what they did; it was still progress. It points out that there is always more to do.”
ATTORNEY GENERAL LYNCH’S FUTURE
We asked about Attorney General Lynch’s future, and she responded: “I like that the Paul Weiss platform lets me have a meaningful and significant practice where I hope to provide wise and effective counsel to companies. I also like that it allows me to do pro bono work, where we can use the resources of Paul Weiss to help people who wouldn’t normally get those benefits. I think that there are several ways to serve your country. I’ve been tremendously proud to serve my country.”
We pressed her on whether she had a specific dream job, and she said “I have never gone for a specific dream job. I’ve gone more to have a certain impact. I didn’t join the Eastern District to say ‘I came to be the U.S. Attorney.’ I came because I believed there was a community that needed protecting,” but she added: “I don’t know what the future holds.”
We asked about rumors that she was a candidate to fill Justice Scalia’s seat when he died. She described her reaction as “practical and personal. . . . I have a tremendous respect for the Court, I have friends on the Court, and the Court tries very hard to get it right. I have always thought that – despite the fact that some people have gone to the Court without having been on the bench before – in my view, you should be on the bench before. Also, I did not want the role of being a sort of cloistered arbitrator. In addition, I knew that if I were to be nominated, having gone through a confirmation before, having to step back a lot from public things, this would render me ineffective for the rest of my term as Attorney General.”
I reminded Attorney General Lynch that I had once suggested that the ideal job for her would be U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. Her eyes lit up, and this was her reply: “I think our place in the world is very important. Although we’re still a fairly young country, for a long time we have been an example in terms of democracy. And I mean democracy in a truly messy sense. We fight and we argue, but we have peaceful transitions of power. And we have always been a force in the world and we could continue to do that. I think we’re taking a break from that right now, for some reason, but I think the world is still looking to us to be a stabilizing factor and a supporting factor to emerging democracies. And they’re looking at us to see how we survive the challenges facing our own democracy. They’re looking at us to see how we’re going to handle the challenges to our own democracy that we’re going through right now. There are a number of ways in which I would like to be helpful in how we do that ultimately.”