CINCINNATI (AP) — U.S. Sen. Rand Paul blended his message of libertarian-fueled privacy policies with
civil rights-inspired criminal justice reforms during a speech Friday to the National Urban League’s
annual convention in this presidential battleground state.
The Kentucky Republican announced he would introduce legislation on Friday that would end the federal
sentencing disparities between crack and powder cocaine, part of a series of bills Paul has authored in
the past two months designed to correct the racial imbalance of the nation’s criminal justice system.
And he continued his criticism of the federal government’s domestic spying program, telling the mostly
black audience that “those who have known injustice should be at the vanguard of the fight to protect
all of our civil liberties.”
“Whether you are a minority because of color of your skin or by virtue of your political or religious
persuasion, it is imperative that we restrain the power of the majority,” he said. “Dr. King’s ‘I have a
Dream’ speech inspired the world but it also prompted the FBI to tap his phone illegally and spy on tens
of thousands of Americans.”
Paul, a potential 2016 Republican presidential candidate, has been wooing minority voters with tough talk
on reforming the nation’s drug and sentencing laws. In the past two months, he has introduced bills that
would downgrade some felonies to misdemeanors, eliminate mandatory minimum sentences, restore the voting
rights to some convicted felons and make it easier for people to expunge their criminal records. His
latest bill would give the same sentence for crack cocaine offenses and powder cocaine crimes. The
majority of people arrested for crack cocaine offenses are African-Americans.
“Anyone who thinks race does not still, even if inadvertently, skew the application of criminal justice
is just not paying close attention,” Paul said.
That injustice, Paul said, has affected voting rights. He said 5 million people nationwide are prevented
from voting because they have a criminal record, which is why he has pushed for state and federal
legislation that would restore the voting rights of some convicted felons.
But Paul does support various state laws that have popped up across the country requiring voters to show
a photo ID at the polls, laws that have been condemned by civil rights groups — including the National
Urban League — as disenfranchising some black voters who don’t have an ID and can’t get one.
“If you want to come see me you may have to show your driver’s license in some venue,” Paul told The
Associated Press in an interview the day before his speech. “People need to look to where the problem of
voting suppression is right now, and that is almost really without question most significantly coming
from the criminal justice system.”
Marc Morial, the National Urban League’s president and CEO, said he spent about an hour with Paul on
Friday and urged him to speak out against voter ID laws.
“We are going to continue to push him … that voter ID laws are not needed, not necessary and to some
extent are a solution in search of a problem,” Morial said.
Morial said he thought Paul’s speech was “well received.” But he said ultimately Paul’s credibility with
minority voters will depend on whether Paul continues to consistently push for reforms.
“He’s working to build credibility. I think it takes time to build trust,” he said. “We don’t favor drive
by politics. I want to see consistency.”
Paul’s pitch to minority voters has been criticized by some — including Georgia Davis Powers, Kentucky’s
first black state Senator — as political opportunism. But Paul stressed the bipartisan nature of his
reforms in his speech to the National Urban League.
“I was trained to diagnose the problem and find a solution, not worry about which party it came from,”
Paul said. “My hope is that each of you will work with me to find solutions that aren’t hung up in
partisan politics and together we might rise above a dysfunctional Congress and do what’s right for the
country.”