Justice Denied

The Progress Report

The Washington Post reveals today that the Texas congressional map drawn by Rep. Tom DeLay (R-TX), which helped him gain five seats in the 2004 House elections, was unanimously opposed by the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division because it was deemed to illegally dilute black and Hispanic voting power. The case is the second major example in the past few weeks of political appointees at the Justice Department overruling civil rights professionals on implementation of the Voting Rights Act. In mid-November, the Post reported that a Georgia voter-identification program was deemed by the Civil Rights Division to be discriminatory against black voters, yet their judgment was overruled. These most recent examples highlight a pattern of conduct by the Justice Department political appointees; they have repeatedly sought to advance a right-wing ideological agenda at the expense of traditional and broadly-supported civil rights protections.

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