Bondi’s DOJ Doesn’t Protect Voting Rights—It Protects the White Grievance Politics of Donald Trump

By Mark M. Bello

The Trump-Bondi [In-] Justice Department has sued California, accusing the State of “racial gerrymandering.” This highly-partisan lawsuit seeks to block a congressional map that — unlike virtually every other map in America — was approved directly by the voters.

Let me repeat that:

California voters approved the map. Not the legislature. Not a backroom deal. The people.

Yet, somehow, this is the one map the DOJ wants to blow up.

Why?

Because California supposedly created districts that favor Hispanic voters. Since when is protecting Latino representation in a state where Latinos are the largest ethnic group a bad thing? And while making this outrageously partisan charge, the DOJ ignores far more blatant, well-documented, court-proven cases of racial discrimination in map-drawing in Republican states. The pattern is unmistakable.

And the contrast is disgusting.

Here’s the one-sentence truth: While both parties gerrymander, the record of racial-minority-dilution is heavily weighted toward Republican map-makers, and enforcement by the DOJ appears inconsistent with full symmetry.

This is not merely my opinion. It is the documented legal history of modern redistricting. And it reveals that Pam Bondi’s DOJ has weaponized the Voting Rights Act not to protect minority voters, but to punish Democratic states and advance President Trump’s white-majority grievance politics.

The Obvious Question:

If the DOJ is so concerned about “egregious racial gerrymander,” why hasn’t it sued the Republican legislatures that have been diluting Black, Latino, and Asian votes for decades?

Why didn’t the DOJ sue Texas?

Or Mississippi?

Or Alabama?

North Carolina?

South Carolina?

Utah?

Why is Bondi’s DOJ so laser-focused on one State — the only State where voters themselves chose the map?

Isn’t the answer obvious?

This DOJ serves Donald Trump, not the Constitution or the American People.

The DOJ had ignored a Mountain of Racial Gerrymandering:

Below are real, court-proven, not-even-subtle examples of Republican legislatures targeting minority voters — cases where the DOJ remained silent while civil-rights organizations did what the DOJ is supposed to do:

In 2017, North Carolina’s Republican legislature intentionally packed Black voters into two districts to diminish their statewide political influence. The case was Cooper v. Harris. SCOTUS called the effort an “unconstitutional racial gerrymander.”

• The Supreme Court struck down the map.
• The ACLU, NAACP, and LDF litigated it.
• DOJ under Trump did nothing.

This is actual racial discrimination. There was no DOJ outrage. No DOJ lawsuit. Trump’s Attorney General did not call North Carolina’s redistricting scheme “a brazen power grab that tramples on civil rights and mocks the democratic process.” Those words were reserved for California and uttered by Pam Bondi, our country’s current AG.

Can you see, feel, touch the Republican hypocrisy I so often bitch about?

Texas is a serial offender of unconstitutional, racially motivated gerrymandering. Texas has violated the Voting Rights Act more than any state in modern American history. Since 2020, the State’s population gains have primarily been from Latino and Black communities, yet Republicans created zero new minority-opportunity districts.

Civil rights groups sued Texas. Federal judges blasted the State for its “stunning disregard” for minority voters. Has Pam Bondi accused Texas of “trampling on civil rights?”

Silence.

No outrage.

No lawsuit.

No intervention or enforcement.

The ACLU has documented that Republican map-drawers in Mississippi cracked Black communities, ensuring that white incumbents remained untouchable. Redistricting officials blatantly refused to create Black-majority districts. GOP map-drawers split and diluted minority votes, and the DOJ did nothing.

In Alexander v. South Carolina NAACP, the GOP legislature of South Carolina moved tens of thousands of Black voters out of Nancy Mace’s District 1. A federal judge called the move unconstitutional. Conservative judges called it “troubling.” The DOJ?

Not one filing. No amicus brief. No comment. No . . . nothing.

Let’s visit Alabama and the Allen v Milligan case, the most apparent Voting Rights Act violation of the 21st Century. Civil rights groups sued, and SCOTUS found that Alabama’s Republican map:

Blatantly violated Section 2,

Completely ignored Black population Growth,

Required a second Black-opportunity district.

This 5-4 decision became the landmark case restoring Section 2 protections nationwide. What has Pam Bondi had to say about the case?

Nothing.

Nada.

No comment.

No whining about “racial gerrymandering.”

Bond won’t bother to defend Black voters in Alabama — after all, discriminating against those folks benefits Republicans. And, of course, it would distract the DOJ from its real target, trampling on the voting rights of California Latinos.

In Utah, the voters passed a reform commission. Republicans ignored the voters and the commission, instead drawing their own map, which ensured that Salt Lake County had a 4-0 GOP delegation. A state court judge struck down the map.

Bondi? Trump’s DOJ? No comment. No outrage.

“Voter suppression” in California is a more pressing issue, especially since it may negatively impact GOP politicians.

Congress enacted the Voting Rights Act to protect the rights of racial and ethnic minorities. Some argue that it is no longer necessary. These cases and this DOJ prove that racial and ethnic discrimination is still alive and well in the United States of America. Congress did not enact the VRA to protect against

White political grievance,

Partisan opportunism,

Or the electoral fortunes of a single man or his particular party.

Yet, Trump’s DOJ, through AG Bondi:

ignores decades of GOP racial discrimination,

ignores SCOTUS findings of GOP racial gerrymandering,

ignores VRA violations in multiple red states,

ignores the actions of legislators that override voter-approved commissions,

and ignores states that target minority voters.

It’s singular focus?

Weaponizing the DOJ to attack Democratic-leaning states and do the business of Donald Trump rather than the business of the American people.

This is not law enforcement. It is state-sanctioned grievance politics. It is white-majority revenge politics wrapped in legalese. This is Pam Bondi’s Department of Partisan Justice.

Civil rights groups sue when minority voter rights are violated. The DOJ should often and always sue to protect minority rights under the VRA. But this is not the DOJ; it is Pan Bondi’s DOPJ, where only partisan justice is served.

The DOPJ sues:

Only to protect Republican power,

Only when Democrats might gain seats,

Only when minorities might gain representation,

And only when the boss demands a favorable political outcome.

There’s a word for that in American politics:

Corruption.

And We, The People, should not tolerate it.

Mark M. Bello is an attorney and author of 9 Zachary Blake Legal Thrillers and other legal themed novels and children’s books. For more information, please visit https://www.markmbello.com

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For many years, Bob Gatty worked as a writer, editor, and communications consultant, based on the Washington, DC area with a focus on government and politics. He began at The Pittsburgh Courier, an African American weekly, covering crime and the courts. His salary was $55 per week before moving on to two local Pennsylvania dailies. At age 24, he began reporting for United Press International covering state politics in Pennsylvania and then New Jersey, where he was UPI’s state capitol bureau in Trenton.

Tempted by the allure of Washington, DC and big-time politics, at age 29 Bob became press secretary and chief of staff for two Congressmen – first Republican Edwin B. Forsythe, and then Democrat James J. Florio, who later became governor of New Jersey and until his recent death was a frequent podcast guest and co-host of Bob’s NFN Radio News podcast (now called Lean to the Left).

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