Diatribune

By Brian Mellor, Project Vote's Senior Counsel

The improper firing of eight U.S. Attorneys by the Administration is only the latest in a series of actions by political appointees at the Department of Justice to suppress minority voter turnout, minimize minority representation and control the electoral process through legal threats and restrictive laws.

Unanimous or near unanimous Justice Department career staff findings of minority voter suppression were overruled by political appointees. The goal in Texas in 2003 was to, as Tom Delay boasted, create a redistricting plan that would knock Democratic Members of Congress out of office and have them replaced with Republicans. However, eight career professionals in the Civil Rights Division of the DOJ unanimously concluded that the plan discriminated against African American and Latino voters.i The political staff, led by Hans von Spakovsky, overruled the career professionals and approved the plan. In 2006, the Supreme Court invalidated the plan in part because of Voting Rights Act violations. Georgia passed a law requiring photographic identification to vote in 2005. Voter identification requirements reduce minority voting.ii The career professionals were near unanimous in their disapproval of the plan and again the political staff overruled them and approved it.iii A United States Court of Appeals has since ruled the law unconstitutional.

Political staff manipulated the process. In Mississippi, the DOJ used another tactic to approve a redistricting plan that harmed minority voters. Political appointees delayed the issuance of a decision on a somewhat neutral redistricting plan, allowing a much more partisan plan to go into effect by federal court order.iv

Dissenters were punished. Career attorneys are no longer permitted to make recommendations to the political appointees.v This and other politically-motivated policies, such as removing career professionals from the hiring process, has led to an exodus of seasoned experienced voting rights attorneys from the DOJ.vi

Political appointees were rewarded for undermining voting rights laws. Von Spakovsky, who was given a recess appointment to the FEC, has just been appointed to a full term. Tim Griffin, the attorney and Karl Rove protégé for whom the Arkansas U.S. Attorney was removed, previously directed a targeted challenge to minority absentee ballots in Florida for the RNC.vii

i.“Gonzales Defends Approval of Texas Redistricting by Justice.” Dan Eggen Washington Post Staff Writer Saturday, December 3, 2005.
ii.“Study: Stricter voting ID rules hurt ’04 turnout.” Richard Wolf. USA TODAY. February 19, 2007. iii.“Criticism of Voting Law Was Overruled.” Dan Eggen. Washington Post. November 17, 2005. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/16/AR200511...
iv.“Poll Position, Is the Justice Department poised to stop voter fraud-or to keep voters from voting?”Jeffrey Toobin, The New Yorker. September 20, 2004 .
v.“Staff opinions banned in voting rights cases.” Dan Eggen. Washington Post. December 10, 2005.
vi.“Justice Dept. rights division faces upheaval.” Dan Eggen. Boston Herald. November 20, 2005.
vii.“Voter Suppression and the Gonzalez 8.” J. Gerald Hebert. Campaign Legal Center Blog. March 16, 2007.

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