February 04, 2010
Intellectual Disability at the Justice Department

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder is looking for a few good attorneys to join the Justice Department and defend your voting rights:

The Civil Rights Division encourages qualified applicants with targeted disabilities to apply. Targeted disabilities are deafness, blindness, missing extremities, partial or complete paralysis, convulsive disorder, mental retardation, mental illness, severe distortion of limbs and/or spine. Applicants who meet the qualification requirements and are able to perform the essential functions of the position with or without reasonable accommodation are encouraged to identify targeted disabilities in response to the questions in the Avue application system seeking that information.
emphasis added.

It's an outrage that the Justice Department is looking for lawyers with "mental retardation".

Don't they know that the new term for this is "individuals with intellectual disability"?

Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at February 04, 2010 09:35 AM | Email This
Comments
1. Well, if they are using Rahm Emmanuels definition they want liberal Democrats

Posted by: MIke336 on February 4, 2010 09:34 AM
2. I guess it's OK to profile based on disabilities now?

Posted by: Shanghai Dan on February 4, 2010 09:41 AM
3. We are so doomed.

Posted by: Gary on February 4, 2010 09:43 AM
4. Stefan, what makes you think that they are looking for lawyers with mental retardation? I assume that people with that disability would be considered for cleaning, simple clerical tasks, etc. The posting says clearly that applicants must be able to do the job. Got a problem with that? Or do you just like making fun of disabled people?

Posted by: Bruce on February 4, 2010 09:47 AM
5. Bruce, the job posting was specifically for:
U. S. Department of Justice
Civil Rights Division, Voting Section
Trial Attorney, GS-14/15. The U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division is seeking up to 10 experienced attorneys for the position of Trial Attorney in the Voting Section in Washington, D.C.

They weren't looking for office help.

Under the section, Other Information:

As part of the on-line application process, applicants are asked to provide - on a voluntary basis - demographic information on their race/ethnicity/national origin, sex and disability. Applicants are also asked to indicate how they learned about this vacancy. This information is used to determine if our recruitment efforts are reaching all segments of the population, consistent with federal equal employment opportunity laws.

The boilerplate form is what is insensitive.

Posted by: SouthernRoots on February 4, 2010 09:56 AM
6. Meh. I don't understand why everyone is worked up over the word "retarded". It's a bunch of PC crap.

I'm a lot more concerned over Holder and the Obama administration's treatment of terrorists as ordinary criminals, giving them the Constitutional rights of citizens.

Posted by: Palouse on February 4, 2010 10:03 AM
7. It is another bunch of PC nonsense. The whole issue came up when Rahm Emmanuel called some members of his own party f-ing retarded. Rush Limbaugh repeated what Emmanuel said and the media immediately called for Limbaugh's head.

Retarded has suddenly become "the R word". It's leftist idiocy at its finest. I think they are cracking up.

Posted by: Bill Cruchon on February 4, 2010 10:14 AM
8. Hey aren't all the lawyers who've been hired by the Nobama adminstration to work et DOJ retards anyway by defnition? Criminy, their the ones that told Nobama to close gitmo. What a bunch of dorks.

Posted by: FredW on February 4, 2010 10:38 AM
9. By that criterion, they're specifically looking for members of the US congress to apply...especially those from the left side of the aisle.

Posted by: Rick D. on February 4, 2010 10:52 AM
10. FredW, you are not convincing anyone you're not a liberal.

Posted by: pudge on February 4, 2010 11:45 AM
11. Obvious jokes aside... how is it possible someone that is legally retarded can earn a legit BA/BS, then get accepted to law school, and then earn their J.D. and become a trial attorney? That's like a midget making it into the NBA... it just isn't possible. And anyone with half a brain should know that, so why post it in the job description?

Posted by: Mike H on February 4, 2010 01:01 PM
12. Well, you could probably do it and you sound like a mental midget. Go for it Einstein.

Posted by: RahmE on February 4, 2010 01:07 PM
13. #11. Why? Because we're doomed, that's why. The people running this country (536 of them) are going to achieve what millions of soldiers of enemy armies have been unable to do us.

Posted by: Gary on February 4, 2010 01:14 PM
14. Mike,

It's probably a EOE rule or Government regulation that the disclaimer be added to all job postings. Basically no-brain regulations forcing what is done, rather than letting thinking people actually do the work.

It also eliminates any culpability since there's a "regulation" that mandated the action (just like most zero-tolerance laws).

Posted by: Shanghai Dan on February 4, 2010 01:52 PM
15. Am I missing something? How can you be an effective lawyer with mental retardation?

Posted by: Yosemite Sam on February 4, 2010 02:20 PM
16. No one said anything about being 'effective', the key phrase herein is 'perform the essential functions of the position with or without reasonable accommodation'. And, after all this is the DOJ. :)

Posted by: Duffman on February 4, 2010 02:30 PM
17. Eric Holder.

Posted by: Gary on February 4, 2010 02:33 PM
18. #17 Yep! 'nuff said.

Posted by: Duffman on February 4, 2010 02:38 PM
19. @11.. I work in a legal office, not as a lawyer. There are many attorneys who are qualified, educated, sharp, passionate, bright, etc. Exactly what you would expect an attorney who has passed the bar to be and MORE.

There are also MANY attorneys who are lazy, maladjusted idiots. And really, who do we want them working for? The federal government, if we have a choice. :) We can resent them taking our taxpayer dough in their paychecks. But we definitely want them defending the socialist laws/"civil rights" regulations put out by our politician friends.

(and yes, I work for the federal government)

Posted by: AD on February 4, 2010 03:16 PM
20. What a bunch of libTARDS!

Posted by: Dufus McBroke on February 4, 2010 03:27 PM
21. The "mental illness" category that follows is almost as interesting as the "mental retardation" category.

I was re-reading Philip K. Dick's "Clans of the Alphane Moon" recently, which describes a colony of mental patients. The different diagnoses live in separate communities and fill different niches in the colony. This notice started me wondering whether certain kinds of mental illnesses would make a lawyer better at some kinds of cases.

For instance, would an obsessive-compulsive be better at cases that required endless amounts of detailed work? Or would a paranoid be a good prosecutor if he was after a really evil organization?

But then I realized that I don't know enough about lawyers and law firms to decide that question. Anyone else want to take a crack at it?

Posted by: Jim Miller on February 4, 2010 08:57 PM
22. @21 Jim Miller on February 4, 2010 08:57 PM,

"... would an obsessive-compulsive be better at cases that required endless amounts of detailed work? Or would a paranoid be a good prosecutor if he was after a really evil organization? ... Anyone else want to take a crack at it?"

Well, you could Friend the certifiably bat crap crazy lawyer, Orly Taitz, and give her a crack at it. :-)

Posted by: MikeBoyScout on February 4, 2010 09:14 PM
23. There are two miscreant regulars over at Goldy's waste treatment facility that claim to be "lawyers" that would certainly fit the bill of "intellectually disabled" or at the very least falling into the category of batscat crazy; Roger Rabbit and Proud leftist

Posted by: Rick D. on February 5, 2010 09:34 AM
Post a comment
Name:


Email Address:


URL:


Comments:


Remember info?