The U.S. Justice Department is preparing to take fresh legal action in a string of voting rights cases across the nation, part of a new attempt to blunt the impact of a Supreme Court ruling that the Obama administration has warned will imperil minority representation.
The decision to challenge state officials marks an aggressive effort to continue policing voting issues and will likely spark a new round of politically contentious litigation that could return consideration of the 1965 Voting Rights Act to the country's highest court.
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder's decision to intervene in a Texas redistricting case Thursday follows a ruling by the Supreme Court last month that invalidated a critical section of the historic legislation. The justices threw out the part of the Voting Rights Act that determined which states with a history of discrimination had to be granted Justice Department or court approval before making voting law changes.