Oh, I just knew the right-wingers had no respect for democracy. From the Washington Post:

Justice Department lawyers concluded that the landmark Texas congressional redistricting plan spearheaded by Rep. Tom DeLay (R) violated the Voting Rights Act, according to a previously undisclosed memo obtained by The Washington Post. But senior officials overruled them and approved the plan.

The memo, 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.

…

Under the Voting Rights Act of 1965, Texas and other states with a history of discriminatory elections are required to submit changes in their voting systems or election maps for approval by the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.

The Texas case provides another example of conflict between political appointees and many of the division’s career employees. In a separate case, The Post reported last month that a team was overruled when it recommended rejecting a controversial Georgia voter-identification program that was later struck down as unconstitutional by a court.

Mark Posner, a longtime Justice Department lawyer who now teaches law at American University, said it was “highly unusual” for political appointees to overrule a unanimous finding such as the one in the Texas case.

…

DeLay, the former House majority leader, is fighting state felony counts of money laundering and conspiracy — crimes he is charged with committing by unlawfully injecting corporate money into state elections. His campaign efforts were made in preparation for the new congressional map that was the focus of the Justice Department memo.

That’s right — the money laundering for which Tom DeLay is under indictment was done to advance a gerrymandering plan that was itself considered illegal by every lawyer and analyst who studied it in the Justice Department.

To be fair, a lot of right-wingers make no secret of their desire to revoke or gut the Voting Rights Act. It’s part of their program to repeal the entire 20^th century.