Ask Sherrod Brown & Rob Portman to appoint a progressive US Attorney for Ohio's Northern District
The time is coming for Ohio's US Senators to nominate a new Northern District of Ohio US Attorney for Joe Biden to appoint for Biden's presidental term. In this campaign, we are asking Ohioans of the Northern district (40 northern counties of
Ohio, including Cleveland, Toledo, Akron, and Youngstown) to contact your Congresspeople to demand a more progressive appointee for the position.
A coalition of Northern district civil rights groups is asking Senators Brown and Portman to select a more progressive appointee as US Attorney of the Northern District of Ohio. Specifically, we want them to select a defense attorney or civil rights attorney. We do not want a corporate attorney or prosecuting attorney.
Outgoing U.S. Attorney Justin Herdman was formerly a partner at Jones Day, the law firm of Donald Trump's 2016 and 2020 campaigns, Fox News, and numerous Fortune 500 companies, including Goldman Sachs and General Motors. He was recommended by Brown and Sen. Portman and appointed by Trump. As U.S. Attorney, he has welcomed funding for federal police--who violate the current mandates of the Cleveland's consent decree-- and has failed to bring a case against a single officer involved shooting, departmental misconduct, and did not support Cleveland's efforts to get a federal trial for the police officers who shot Tamir Rice. We need better action from our US Attorney to assure justice for Ohioans' civil rights.
**We saw just how quickly the US Attorneys moved when they were told to act to find local participants in the January 6th sedition in Washington, DC to charge federally. We want the same kind of swift action for Ohio's own problems with white supremacist violence and systemic police violence.**
Northern Ohio needs to shift the ways in which we have been operating within our criminal justice system, and selecting a defense attorney or civil rights attorney would be a great start.
This form will help you write a letter to your Senators. Letters are a good way to reach your elected officials quickly. It is better to call -- although we know many people hesitate to do so, you can simply read the letter or state in your own words what you desire.
To contact Senator Sherrod Brown's office: 1-888-896-OHIO
Senator Rob Portman: (202) 224-3353
Thank you in advance for taking the time to write these letters. If you receive a substantive response from either Senator, please let us know (clevelandexperts@gmail.com).
Groups signing on to this request include (in alphabetical order).
Black Lives Matter Cleveland, Cleveland Lead Advocates for Safe Housing, Cleveland Peace Action, DSA Trumbull County, Indivisible Cleveland, InterReligious Task Force On Central America and Colombia, The Northeast Ohio Black Health Coalition, OPAWL - Building AAPI Feminist Leadership in Ohio, Our Revolution Mahoning Valley, Resist ORP-OL Cleveland, Sunrise Cleveland, & SURJ NE Ohio
(If your org/group/community would like to co-sign on this list, please email ResistORPCle@gmail.com)
About the Northern District
The United States Attorney’s office serves the 40 northern counties of Ohio from our offices in Cleveland, Toledo, Akron and Youngstown. Our office is responsible for enforcing federal criminal law, which includes a wide range of crimes dealing with national security, public corruption, civil rights, drug trafficking and firearms offenses, among others.
Our Civil Division defends the United States, its agencies and federal employees when they are named as defendants in civil suits. The civil division brings affirmative actions on behalf of the United States in areas as diverse as protecting the environment, ensuring fair housing and addressing health care fraud, recovering tens of millions of dollars in waste, fraud, and abuse each year.
The Department of Justice is the nation's litigator, serving but one client, the United States. The United States Attorneys serve as the Department's principal litigators under the direction of the Attorney General. There are 93 United States Attorneys stationed in judicial districts throughout the United States and its territories. United States Attorneys are appointed by, and serve at the discretion of the President of the United States, with advice and consent of the United States Senate. Each United States Attorney is the Chief Federal Law Enforcement Officer of the United States within his or her particular jurisdiction.
United States Attorneys conduct most of the trial work in which the United States is a party. The United States Attorneys have three statutory responsibilities under Title 28, Section 547 of the United States Code:
- the prosecution of criminal cases brought by the Federal Government;
- the prosecution and defense of civil cases in which the United States is a party; and
- the collection of debt owed to the Federal Government.
Although the caseload varies among districts, each has every category of cases and handles a mixture of simple and complex litigation. Each United States Attorney exercises wide discretion in the use of his or her resources to further the priorities of the local jurisdictions and needs of their communities.
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