Chris Koster (D)
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (Legal Newsline)- St. Louis County Judge Barbara Crancer has been appointed to lead the Missouri attorney general's newly created Workers' Rights Division.
Attorney General Chris Koster, a Democrat, announced the appointment Monday.
Crancer's division will be charged with enforcing civil rights, along with the rights of workers and the disabled. Her official title will be chief counsel of the Division of Civil, Disability and Workers' Rights.
The division will, among other things, enforce the state's prevailing wage law, crack down on illegal workers and work against racial profiling.
"One of government's foremost jobs is to protect the basic rights of Missourians to work, vote, access buildings and do any number of things most of us take for granted," Koster said. "For the first time, the attorney general's office will have a separate legal enforcement division set up to focus solely on these fundamental rights, and I am honored to have Judge Crancer pioneer this effort."
Crancer has been a judge in Missouri's 21st Judicial Circuit since 1992. She is daughter of former Teamsters Union president Jimmy Hoffa and sister of the union's current leader, James Hoffa.
From Legal Newsline: Reach staff reporter Chris Rizo at chrisrizo@legalnewsline.com.