A Damning Commentary on DOJ
Findlaw.com has this must-read commentary by Mark Posner of American University, regarding the recent revelations on the U.S. Department of Justice's administration of the Voting Rights Act. Posner is a former attorney in the DOJ's Civil Rights Division, who supervised reviews under Section 5 of the VRA from the mid-1980's through 1995.

Of DOJ's actions with respect to the Tom Delay-engineered redistricting plan in Texas, Posner writes, "there is strong objective evidence that politics prevailed over the requirements of the Voting Rights Act." Posner characterizes the preclearance process as generally having worked very well in the past, under both Democratic and Republican administrations. On the other hand, with respect to the Texas plan, the political appointees at Justice overruled the unanimous conclusion of career staff that the plan would harm minority voters. Based on DOJ's deviation from past practice, Posner concludes: "based on what we know today, the evidence points to a single conclusion: the Justice Department did not serve the interests of minority citizens in this case, but, instead, served the political interests of the Republican Party."

My take: This one speaks for itself. Nothing I could possibly say could shed light on the problems at DOJ half as well as Posner's commentary does. - posted by Dan Tokaji @ 11:02 PM