Delay's Gerrymandering

The Washington Post reports today that DeLay's redistricting plan for Texas was approved although a Justice Department review board rejected it, finding it in violation of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. The memo ennumerating the decision:

"unanimously endorsed by six lawyers and two analysts in the department's voting section, said the redistricting plan illegally diluted black and Hispanic voting power in two congressional districts. It also said the plan eliminated several other districts in which minorities had a substantial, though not necessarily decisive, influence in elections."

In states in which disenfranchisement of minorities is common, the Justice Department is authorized to step in and weigh whether redistricting has the effect of hampering minority representation. In this case, the Justice Department found that the redistricting did, but was overruled by political interests more interested in increasing the Republican representation in the House of Representatives.
The memo noted that "The State of Texas has not met its burden in showing that the proposed congressional redistricting plan does not have a discriminatory effect".
The article also provides substantial evidence that the overruling on political grounds. Mark Posner, a longtime Justice Department lawyer noted that "In this kind of situation, where everybody agrees at least on a staff level...that is a very, very strong case...The fact that everybody agreed that there were reductions in minority voting strength, and that they were significant, raises a lot of questions as to why it was" approved.
While it is up to the courts to finalize whether the redistricting was constitutional, there appear to be significant barriers to that opiniion.