President Joe Biden has recently come under fire after ordering the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate a "disturbing trend" of harassment and threats against school officials across the nation.
Critics are calling out Biden for breaking his campaign promise to keep the DOJ non-political after Attorney General Merrick Garland issued a directive that ordered the Federal Bureau of Investigations to probe "threats of violence" at school board meetings.
Investigation of Disturbing Trend
According to the directive, the FBI and U.S. attorney's offices are expected to meet with federal, state and local law enforcement leaders to discuss plans to combat what the DOJ said was a "disturbing trend" of harassment against school officials.
In a directive, Garland said that not only were threatening public servants in the United States illegal, the actions were also contradictory to the nation's core values. The official added that officials who worked hard to give American children the proper education and safe environment they deserved had the right to do so without fearing for their own safety.
The directive comes after the National School Board Association, on Sept. 29, wrote a letter urging the Biden administration to treat parent protests at school board meetings as possible acts of "domestic terrorism."
"Coupled with attacks against school board members and educators for approving policies for masks to protect the health and safety of students and school employees, many public school officials are also facing physical threats because of propaganda purporting the false inclusion of critical race theory within classroom instruction and curricula," the National School Board Association wrote in its letter.
Legal experts and politicians are now calling Garland's move a "gross federal overreach." Many are also criticizing the move as an attempt to push critical race theory within classroom instruction.
Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich called the attempt "shameful", arguing that the Biden administration was continuously politicizing the DOJ, ignoring the rule of law, and undermining state sovereignty. The official added that they will not tolerate the heinous actions of federal overreach and intimidation of Arizona families, Fox News reported.
Inappropriate Actions
Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge also weighed in on the move, calling it "grossly inappropriate" and a "political stunt." She said that the Democratic president's use of federal law enforcement against parents would have been better used to protect Americans from the surge of individuals flooding the nation's southern border..
Wyn Hornbuckle, a spokesperson for the DOJ, dismissed claims that the directive aims to silence people with opinions about policies related to the COVID-19 pandemic or the school curricula. The spokesperson clarified that Garland's memorandum was set in place to help the administration root out criminal threats of violence.
During his 2016 campaign, President Biden promised to keep the DOJ non-political. But within the last few months, he has given the DOJ authority to pursue lawsuits against Georgian over its state election statute and Texas for its anti-abortion law.
The Biden administration on Monday also took steps to formally reverse a Trump-era rule that barred reproductive health care clinics providing abortion services from receiving funds from the federal government, according to NBC News.
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