Cleo Fields: “I rise today to express a shameful condition, that condition is the Court's consistent attack on the 1965 Voting Rights…”

“I rise today to express a shameful condition, that condition is the Court's consistent attack on the 1965 Voting Rights Act. But what is more shameful than that, is the inaction of the U.S. Department of Justice. It appears that the Justice Department has aborted its responsibility to defend one of the most important Federal statutes enacted by this Congress in this century. Many of the lawsuits challenging congressional districts as a product of racial gerrymandering are districts that were precleared and approved under subsection 5 of the Voting Rights Act by the Department of Justice. I am of the belief, that if they were constitutional then they must be constitutional now. Certainly, no one would even opine the thought that the Department of Justice would approve any congressional plan that violates the constitutional rights of citizens of this country. The Department of Justice is now leaving the defense of the Voting Rights Act--a Federal statute mind you--in the hands of States that have a history of disenfranchising African-Americans and other minorities. That is like leaving the fox to guard the hen house. Mr. Speaker, I call on the Department of Justice in general and the Attorney General in particular to live up to its responsibility and fiduciary obligation to defend the Voting Rights Act.”