Md. attorney general-elect wants power to sue civil rights violators

Maryland Attorney General-elect Anthony G. Brown, who will be sworn in on Tuesday, wants more authority than his predecessors to go after civil rights violators and to investigate police departments for patterns of misconduct. Brown, 61, who served the past six years in Congress and has a long history in Annapolis as a state lawmaker and lieutenant governor, said he will ask the General Assembly to pass legislation that enables him to sue companies and individuals who violate federal or state civil rights laws, for example, in housing or employment — a power that his colleagues in the District, New York and California possess.