WASHINGTON — Attorney General Eric Holder said Monday that state attorneys general who believe that laws in their states banning same-sex marriage are discriminatory are not obligated to defend them.
The attorney general has been outspoken on issues he sees as highlighting flaws in the criminal justice system that have a disparate impact on minorities. Earlier this month he called on 11 states to restore voting rights to ex-felons, arguing that laws that permanently disenfranchise people who are no longer under federal or state supervision should be reconsidered.
Holder has urged the nation's schools to abandon disciplinary policies that send students to court instead of the principal's office, citing cases in which black students were disciplined more harshly and more frequently than whites.
In addition, he has instructed federal prosecutors to stop charging many nonviolent drug defendants with offenses that carry mandatory minimum sentences, saying that long mandatory terms have flooded the nation's prisons with low-level drug offenders and diverted money away from crime fighting.
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