More Concern About Justice
On Friday, the Washington Post reported on another leaked memo from the U.S. Department of Justice, this one concerning a controversial 2003 redistricting plan drawn by Texas Republicans. The 73-page memo concludes that the redistricting plan violated Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, but the Department nevertheless precleared the plan. The release of this memo heightens concerns arising from the preclearance of Georgia's recently enacted voter ID law, also over staff objections, that the Department is placing partisan politics above the protection of minority rights.

Speaking of which, Senators Barack Obama (D-IL) and Christopher Dodd (D-CT) have written this letter to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, expressing "serious concerns" regarding the decision to preclear Georgia's ID law. Their concerns arise from the fact that Justice precleared Georgia's plan the day after the staff's thoughtful memo explaining why it shouldn't be precleared.

Although the Dodd-Obama letter was apparently written before release of the Texas memo, the Senators say they're concerned that the Georgia ID preclearance appears to be the "latest example of trend within DOJ in which political appointees have ignored the decisions and recommendations of career attorneys in voting rights cases." This follows a letter to Gonzales from Senator Arlen Specter, which also raised concerns about lax civil rights enforcement by Justice.

Stay tuned. More's sure to come on this.

Update: Senators Leahy, Obama, Dodd, Kennedy and Representative John Lewis sent a new letter to AG Gonzales on December 5, regarding both the Texas and the Georgia preclearance decisions. The letter may be found here and a press release from Sen. Kennedy's office here. - posted by Dan Tokaji @ 11:50 PM