[Seattle-editorial] FP: Justice Department Undercutting The Voting Rights Act?

[sheri at speakeasy.org]

Hi,
possible story.
Frank Watkins is a friend of my uncle and is jesse jackson's legislative aid.  
Sheri

-----Original Message-----
From: Watkins, Frank [mailto:Frank.Watkins at mail.house.gov]
Sent: Monday, December 22, 2003 08:12 PM
Subject: Justice Department Undercutting The Voting Rights Act?

Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee
For Immediate Release                         22 December 2003

Who is Hans von Spakovsky? 

GOP Appointees at DOJ Launch Assault on Voting Rights By Pre-clearing
Illegal TX Redistricting Plan; Impose Unprecedented Gag Order to Cover-Up

Connect the dots... it all adds up to the most concerted attack on minority
voters' rights since the Voting Rights Act was passed. The pre-clearance of
the Texas redistricting plan is clear evidence that the Bush-Ashcroft
Department of Justice has subverted the Voting Rights Act beyond
recognition. And DOJ political appointees have imposed an unprecedented gag
order upon staff in an effort to hide their attack on voting rights. 

Consider Hans von Spakovsky: the Republican political appointee overseeing
the review of the Texas plan and no rookie when it comes to attacking the
rights of Hispanic and African American voters. 

Spakovsky, a "conservative activist," was a 2000 Bush campaign recount
observer in Florida and an officer in the GOP-allied Voting Integrity
Project that helped improperly purge the Florida voting rolls, denying
thousands of black residents the right to vote in the 2000 election. He has
also worked as Fulton County (GA) Republican Party Chairman. [Atlanta
Journal-Constitution, 12/16/99; Hartford (CT) Courant, 11/22/00; Chicago
Daily Law Bulletin, 2/24/00; Palm Beach Post, 12/6/00; Joel Kaplan, Chicago
Tribune, 1/14/01; Washington Post, 3/15/02]. 

Spakovsky and other GOP appointees at DOJ overruled professional staff who
had recommended the Texas map be rejected for violating the Voting Rights
Act. Never before had DOJ pre-cleared a plan that eliminated a
majority-minority congressional district. 

According to the Associated Press, attorney Gerry Hebert (who served as the
top professional in DOJ's Voting Section for nearly 20 years) was informed
by career lawyers within the Civil Rights Section that professional staff
reviewing the Texas plan had concluded it violated Section 2 of the Voting
Rights Act and ruled it should be rejected. Hebert has filed a FOIA request
with DOJ to obtain the memo from the Voting Section professionals
recommending that the Texas plan be rejected for violating Section 2 of the
Voting Rights Act. 

"By pre-clearing this illegal map over the objections of professionals
within the Voting Section, the Bush Administration has again proven it
cannot be trusted to enforce our civil rights laws," said Democratic
Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Robert T. Matsui (CA). "This is
not the end of the process, the future of the Voting Rights Act now rests
with the courts. We will continue fighting this illegal map to ensure that
Tom DeLay and a handful of right-wing political appointees aren't allowed to
turn back decades of progress in voting rights." 

# # # 

Contact:            Greg Speed, 202/485-3440