Motherfucking jackasses in the Justice Department
Ah, yes. I knew something was pissing me off today.
I direct your attention to this article in today's Austin American Statesman. (Registration may be required, if you can't get to that article, the original piece is in The Washington Post today too.) My attention was directed to it by baltassoc who happened to be in the Austin airport this morning.WASHINGTON - Attorney General Alberto Gonzales defended the Justice Department's decision to ignore staff lawyers' concerns that a Texas redistricting plan orchestrated by former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay would dilute minority voting rights.
A Justice Department memo released Friday showed that agency staffers unanimously objected to the Texas plan, which DeLay pushed through the Legislature to help elect more Republicans to the U.S. House.
Senior agency officials, appointed by President Bush, brushed aside concerns about the possible impact on minority voting and approved the new districts for the 2004 elections.
Unanimous. The staff was unanimous in their opinion that the VRA would be violated if Tom DeLay's maps were used in the redistricting debacle in 2003.
Let me tell you a little bit about agency staff attorneys. They tend to know what the fuck they're talking about. They tend not to be political in their leanings, but they tend to know a lot about the area of law that they're looking into. The guys over at the Voting Rights Act division look at maps all the time. They evaluate the maps that they're sent all the fucking time, and when they say "hey, this doesn't work, because we're going to end up diluting minority votes," they're generally right.Because of historic discrimination against minority voters, Texas is required under provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to get Justice Department approval for any voting changes it makes to ensure the changes don't undercut minority voting.
"The State of Texas has not met its burden in showing that the proposed congressional redistricting plan does not have a discriminatory effect," Justice Department officials said in the memo made public by the Lone Star Project, a Democratic group.
Eight department staffers, including the heads of the Voting Rights Division, objected to the redistricting map, according to the memo which was first reported in Friday editions of The Washington Post.
I can't even begin to tell you how much it pisses me off that this happened. What's the point of sending the maps to the Justice Department if the maps are just going to be rubberstamped by political appointees. Even the head of the department signed off on the memo regarding the redistricting plan.
The thing was, the memo was dated December 13, 2003, and a map needed to be approved by the legislature by October 13 if the map was going to be in effect in time for the 2004 primaries. Because the Republicans fucked around afer the Democrats conceeded, they didn't have time for a second go at the map if the Justice Department nixed the idea. But I guess it didn't really matter, because the Republicans (Rove and motherfucking jackass Tom DeLay) had the Justice Department thing wrapped up before the maps were even sent to the department for review.
This makes me so very, very, very angry. Unbelievably angry. And not just because I was redistricted, and not just because District 25 was chopped up to pieces, and not just because five good members of the legislature were removed from office. It makes me angry because it reflects a blatant disregard for the laws of this country and the process by which those laws are followed. It makes me angry because the Voting Rights Act is just a sham to these people, and fine, they followed the letter of the law by having the maps reviewed by the VRA department in the Justice Department, but they knew that the review wasn't going to make a bit of difference at all.
ETA: I did legal research on for a heated discussion about this on another board (stupid lawyers...) and thought I'd post the relevant cases here.
Walter Session, et al v. Rick Perry, et al (decided by three judge panel in on January 6, 2004 in the United State District Court Eastern District of Texas)
Henderson v. Perry (remand by the United States Supreme Court on October 18, 2004 in light of Vieth v. Jubelirer, the 2004 Pennsylvania case)
Henderson v. Perry (decided by the three judge panel again on June 9, 2005)
It's interesting to note that the first case discussed the VRA issues that the Justice Department reviewed (and one judge dissented on district 23), but the Supreme Court did not look at that issue at all. The original judgement was vacated, but the sole issue that the three judge panel was asked to look at was whether or not improper political gerrymandering took place. There is no discussion of the Voting Rights Act (the issue that the Justice Department staff attorneys reviewed) in the most recent opinion.
Uh, I have no idea what the proper citations are....
I direct your attention to this article in today's Austin American Statesman. (Registration may be required, if you can't get to that article, the original piece is in The Washington Post today too.) My attention was directed to it by baltassoc who happened to be in the Austin airport this morning.WASHINGTON - Attorney General Alberto Gonzales defended the Justice Department's decision to ignore staff lawyers' concerns that a Texas redistricting plan orchestrated by former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay would dilute minority voting rights.
A Justice Department memo released Friday showed that agency staffers unanimously objected to the Texas plan, which DeLay pushed through the Legislature to help elect more Republicans to the U.S. House.
Senior agency officials, appointed by President Bush, brushed aside concerns about the possible impact on minority voting and approved the new districts for the 2004 elections.
Unanimous. The staff was unanimous in their opinion that the VRA would be violated if Tom DeLay's maps were used in the redistricting debacle in 2003.
Let me tell you a little bit about agency staff attorneys. They tend to know what the fuck they're talking about. They tend not to be political in their leanings, but they tend to know a lot about the area of law that they're looking into. The guys over at the Voting Rights Act division look at maps all the time. They evaluate the maps that they're sent all the fucking time, and when they say "hey, this doesn't work, because we're going to end up diluting minority votes," they're generally right.Because of historic discrimination against minority voters, Texas is required under provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to get Justice Department approval for any voting changes it makes to ensure the changes don't undercut minority voting.
"The State of Texas has not met its burden in showing that the proposed congressional redistricting plan does not have a discriminatory effect," Justice Department officials said in the memo made public by the Lone Star Project, a Democratic group.
Eight department staffers, including the heads of the Voting Rights Division, objected to the redistricting map, according to the memo which was first reported in Friday editions of The Washington Post.
I can't even begin to tell you how much it pisses me off that this happened. What's the point of sending the maps to the Justice Department if the maps are just going to be rubberstamped by political appointees. Even the head of the department signed off on the memo regarding the redistricting plan.
The thing was, the memo was dated December 13, 2003, and a map needed to be approved by the legislature by October 13 if the map was going to be in effect in time for the 2004 primaries. Because the Republicans fucked around afer the Democrats conceeded, they didn't have time for a second go at the map if the Justice Department nixed the idea. But I guess it didn't really matter, because the Republicans (Rove and motherfucking jackass Tom DeLay) had the Justice Department thing wrapped up before the maps were even sent to the department for review.
This makes me so very, very, very angry. Unbelievably angry. And not just because I was redistricted, and not just because District 25 was chopped up to pieces, and not just because five good members of the legislature were removed from office. It makes me angry because it reflects a blatant disregard for the laws of this country and the process by which those laws are followed. It makes me angry because the Voting Rights Act is just a sham to these people, and fine, they followed the letter of the law by having the maps reviewed by the VRA department in the Justice Department, but they knew that the review wasn't going to make a bit of difference at all.
ETA: I did legal research on for a heated discussion about this on another board (stupid lawyers...) and thought I'd post the relevant cases here.
Walter Session, et al v. Rick Perry, et al (decided by three judge panel in on January 6, 2004 in the United State District Court Eastern District of Texas)
Henderson v. Perry (remand by the United States Supreme Court on October 18, 2004 in light of Vieth v. Jubelirer, the 2004 Pennsylvania case)
Henderson v. Perry (decided by the three judge panel again on June 9, 2005)
It's interesting to note that the first case discussed the VRA issues that the Justice Department reviewed (and one judge dissented on district 23), but the Supreme Court did not look at that issue at all. The original judgement was vacated, but the sole issue that the three judge panel was asked to look at was whether or not improper political gerrymandering took place. There is no discussion of the Voting Rights Act (the issue that the Justice Department staff attorneys reviewed) in the most recent opinion.
Uh, I have no idea what the proper citations are....