Article by Robert A. Destro and L. Martin
Nussbaum
'The lawyers are looking at it." That, in so many
words, has been the response given by Secretary of State John Kerry
and the White House every time they have been pressed on whether
the State Department will call the Islamic State's war on
religious minorities "genocide."
Kerry faces a congressionally mandated deadline on Thursday to
make this determination. But already, unnamed officials have said he is unlikely to meet the deadline.
On Monday, the House took the unusual step of weighing in on the
issue, voting 393-0 to declare it genocide.
The administration's lawyers are right to look carefully at
ISIL's behavior. That's what good prosecutors do. But the
implication that a genocide designation is a difficult call is
simply untrue. Prosecutors have enormous discretion to investigate
and indict, and they regularly file criminal charges based on far
less evidence than ISIL posts daily on social media. There is
