Eric Holder Installed as U.S. Attorney General at GW

Robert I. Richter, associate judge of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, swears in Eric H. Holder Jr. as attorney general while President Obama and Holder’s wife, Sharon Malone, look on.

By Julia Parmley

President Barack Obama, former Attorney General John Ashcroft, and Ethel Kennedy, wife of former Senator and Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, were among the capacity crowd at GW’s Lisner Auditorium for the March 27 installation ceremony of Eric H. Holder Jr. as the nation’s 82nd attorney general.

The ceremony began with welcoming remarks by Deputy Attorney General
David W. Ogden and the pledge of allegiance led by Earl D. Camp, supervisory special agent for the FBI. Obama then took the stage with Holder; Holder’s wife, Sharon Malone; and Robert I. Richter, associate judge of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. Obama thanked GW President Steven Knapp for hosting the event and told the audience that Holder was the right choice to protect the security and rights of all Americans.

“I can confirm that [Holder] is thoroughly prepared to take on the law enforcement challenges of this new century,” said Obama. “As a student of history, he also knows history’s lessons about what happens when we let politics and ideology cloud our judgment and let fear and anger, rather than reason, dictate our policy. These are mistakes he will not repeat, because Eric comes to this job with one agenda: to do what is right under the law.”

Obama said he wanted to appoint an attorney general who understood that justice
was about the needs of the people. “I sought someone who recognizes the very real
threats we face but has the wisdom in those hard-to-call cases to find that fine balance
between ensuring our security and preserving our liberty,” said Obama. “Most of all, I
was looking for someone who believes deeply enough in the American people’s cause to serve as the American people’s lawyer…I think that’s a pretty good description of
our new attorney general.”

Following Obama’s remarks, Richter swore in Holder as the 82nd U.S. attorney general. In his address, Holder stressed that the United States is a “nation of laws”
and pledged to lead the Justice Department in accordance with the principles of the
U.S. Constitution, including adherence to the rule of law, equality before law, and due
process. “These principles can only truly be the animated forces of our legal system if
we, both individually and collectively, make it so,” said Holder. “That is why, Mr. President, I pledge to you, to my fellow Department of Justice employees and to the
American people as a whole that I will lead a Department of Justice that is firmly rooted in, and solely guided by, these sacred principles.”

Calling the appointment the highest honor of his life and career, Holder said, “When American generations look back now on the work that we will do, let us strive to ensure that they will say that we kept the faith and that we made a superb Justice Department even greater.”

Holder received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from GW in 1998, was a GW trustee from 1996 to 1997, and served as a member of the GW Homeland Security Policy Institute Steering Committee.

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