"A federal prosecution against George Zimmerman would violate civil rights under the guise of enforcing them, a betrayal of the justice system that is supposed to be our refuge from politicized law-enforcement.

The state trial in Florida elucidated that concocting a murder case out of the tragic shooting death of Trayvon Martin, in the face of compelling evidence that Zimmerman acted in justifiable self-defense, substituted demagogic racial politics for proof. The jury properly rejected the prosecution's shoddy case, which was bereft of the requisite demonstration of intent to commit murder and had no answer for Zimmerman's well-corroborated claim that Martin attacked and severely beat him.

Though it is hard to imagine, a federal civil rights indictment would be even more frivolous than the state murder charge. It would suffer from all the same insufficiencies: Zimmerman's lack of intent to harm Martin physically and the inability to refute compelling self-defense evidence. But that would only be the start of the Justice Department's problems.

[See a collection of editorial cartoons on the Trayvon Martin tragedy.]

In the criminal context, federal civil rights law imposes even tougher burdens for prosecutors when it comes to mens rea – i.e., proof of criminal intent. The government would have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt not only that Zimmerman intended to inflict physical harm on Martin but that he also did so out of racial bias.

There is not a scintilla of evidence that Zimmerman has ever been a racist, much less that racism played any part in the shooting. After hearing all the prosecution's evidence, the Florida jury concluded that race was irrelevant to the case. And reportedly, the FBI has been unable to uncover any indications of racism, despite an extensive investigation of Zimmerman. Racism is the prism through which the Left would convert this tragedy into a morality play. It defies reality."