Given the interest in the George Zimmerman verdict and the fact that the NAACP and other groups are demanding federal action, we don’t blame the Justice Department for assessing whether criminal civil rights charges might be legitimate now that Zimmerman has been acquitted. But we’re deeply skeptical of proceeding with further charges.

The same problems that hobbled the state in its pursuit of Zimmerman would face the Justice Department, beginning with the lack of witnesses to the deadly confrontation between Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin in February 2012.

And there would be new problems, too. A civil rights charge would presumably require evidence that Zimmerman acted out of racial bias. Yet if hard evidence of such bigotry failed to surface in the past year and a half, it’s hard to believe it would come to light now.

To be sure, the Justice Department has played an important role historically in filing federal charges when a clear miscarriage of justice seems to have occurred in a case involving race. But if there was a miscarriage of justice here, it certainly isn’t obvious.

You can argue that Sanford police fumbled the early handling of the investigation. You can say Zimmerman should have stayed in his car, should not have had a gun, or should have made any number of other decisions differently, but we simply do not know exactly how the final confrontation unfolded. Martin was the only other witness and he is dead; meanwhile, it so happens that he appears to have been on top of Zimmerman when the fatal shot was fired.

The jury’s conclusions could not have been shocking to anyone who followed the case with an open mind.

Of course, open minds and fair-minded attitudes have not been the hallmarks of the Trayvon Martin phenomenon since it burst into the national consciousness last year. Politicians, activists and commentators of both left and right have exploited the incident to make extravagant claims regarding, on the one hand, the American justice system and, on the other, civil rights ideology in the age of political correctness. And that discourse for the most part has been an ongoing disgrace.

Unfortunately, the low point in this rush from balance may have been supplied by the media — specifically, NBC News’ racially inflammatory editing of Zimmerman’s 911 call to police on the night of the shooting.

During the trial, it became clear the state overreached in charging Zimmerman with second-degree murder, setting up unrealistic expectations among many. The Justice Department should heed that lesson before taking on what would appear to be a long-shot prosecution.