Justice Dept. Moves to Protect Black Voting Districts

The Justice Department acted Tuesday to protect black-majority congressional districts that face private legal challenges in Georgia, North Carolina and Texas and said it is considering similar action in a Florida case.

The Justice Department moved to intervene and join the state of Georgia in defending a challenge to the constitutionality of the boundaries of the 11th District of black Democratic Rep. Cynthia McKinney.

It decided to file friend-of-the-court briefs in similar cases in North Carolina, where the 12th District, represented by Democrat Melvin Watt, has been challenged and in Texas, where the 18th District of black Democrat Craig Washington and the 29th District of Democratic Rep. Gene Green have been attacked as unconstitutional. The 29th was designed as a Latino district, although Green, who is not Latino, won the 1992 election in the district.

“This department is committed to protecting minority voting rights gains that were achieved through redistricting after the 1990 Census,” Atty. Gen. Janet Reno said. “Our actions today will help ensure that the clock is not turned back and that those gains are not undone.”

Later, President Clinton added: “These hard-won victories must not be abandoned.”

Reno’s announcement and Clinton’s statement, however, failed to reassure members of the Congressional Black Caucus and other minority leaders who said that even stronger action is necessary to preserve African American and Latino gains achieved as a result of redistricting for the 1992 elections.

“We think she (Reno) should intervene in all of the cases,” said Rep. Cleo Fields (D-La.), whose z-shaped district in Louisiana has been ruled unconstitutional by a three-judge federal court. The Justice Department filed a friend-of-the-court brief in his case, which is now being appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

“The Justice Department must step up to the line and defend the Voting Rights Act,” Fields added.

Intervention, the step selected by the Justice Department in the Georgia case, would make the U.S. government a full participant, allowing federal attorneys more leeway to dig out facts and examine witnesses during trial. Friend-of-the-court briefs merely express the Justice Department’s position on the legal issues.

The department said that it is considering entering a court case challenging the lines drawn for the 3rd District in northern Florida, which is represented by black Democrat Corrine Brown.

Government officials said that each lawsuit involves different circumstances and defended the different approaches as appropriate legal ways to defend the redrawn district lines, which were designed to provide adequate minority representation.