DOJ Civil Rights Division and Section 5

RNLA Member Hans von Spakovsky has an interesting look today in the role of some DOJ attorneys in the Civil Rights Division at National Review Online. He explores their use of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act to ensure that Democrat majorities are maintained, instead of using it for its intended purpose.

Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act may not look like a political weapon. But in the hands of certain government lawyers, that’s exactly what it has become.

It requires certain (mostly Southern) states to get “pre-clearance” of their voting-rules changes from the Justice Department. The problem, as I have written before, is that the liberal career lawyers in the Voting Section of the Civil Rights Division have converted the statute over the years into a weapon designed primarily to benefit the Democratic party.

These highly partisan bureaucrats have no compunction about ignoring the actual requirements of the law. And they typically exhibit a disturbingly patronizing attitude towards African-Americans.

...

In other words, a handful of Justice Department bureaucrats have effectively been empowered to control much of the political structure of the South and aid Democratic-party interests.
...

This cynical manipulation of federal power to benefit one political party over another — an all-too-common feature of the Civil Rights Division’s agenda during Democratic administrations — underscores that the only real source of refuge from these political machinations is the Supreme Court. Only the Supreme Court, by striking down Section 5 as unconstitutional, can cauterize the bleeding. It’s too bad the court ducked its opportunity earlier this year; here’s hoping that another case will give the Justices a second chance soon, and that the court won’t avoid the issue the next time around.

 

The rest of the article is well worth the read.