By Richard B. Schmitt, Los Angeles Times
Two years ago, in a speech at the Justice Department marking the 40th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, Bradley J. Schlozman, then the acting chief of the department’s civil rights division, found much to celebrate.
“The voting enforcement efforts of the civil rights division during this administration have been as strong, if not stronger, than ever,” Schlozman declared. “We have a tremendous record, one that is a testament to the division’s outstanding attorneys and staff.”
Schlozman, a Bush administration political appointee, was also in the process of dismantling the ranks of career attorneys in the division, former employees contend.
Some of the division’s most experienced lawyers resigned or were involuntarily transferred, often in favor of Republican loyalists who had a much different view of the laws they were sworn to uphold, the former employees allege.