Via the Houston Chronicle:

U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft on Friday cleared Texas to use a new Republican congressional redistricting plan for the 2004 elections -- a devastating blow to Democrats and minorities fighting the plan.

Republican officials praised the decision, but opponents blasted it as the action of a highly partisan Justice Department that "hijacks" minority voting rights for political gain.

[....]

Republicans claimed that the old map was unfair because it gave the Democrats a 17-15 majority in the state's congressional delegation when Republicans were winning statewide. Democrats said it was fair because five Democratic incumbents won in districts that vote Republican in statewide elections.

The new map likely would give Republicans a 22-10 majority after next year's elections. Democrats and minority groups say that new majority was created by splitting minority voting communities illegally to disenfranchise black and Hispanic voters.

Given the degree to which the Republicans control all three branches of government, and the tactics they've shown themselves willing to use to get themselves elected, it should come as no surprise to see what they're willing to do to ensure they stay in power. The latest in this litany of tactics is creative redistricting--in which Republican-controlled State legislatures redraw the boundaries of the voting districts to ensure that demographic data solidifies or increases their hold on the State's seats.

Normally, redistricting is done once every ten years, immediately following the Census. However, the GOP has been taking advantage of its stranglehold on State legislatures to push through off-schedule redistricting--essentially, changing the rules mid-term simply because they have the power to do so. This became fairly well-publicized for a short time when Texas Democrats fled to a neighboring state to break the quorum required to conduct the vote. Unfortunately, most of the publicity centered around portraying the Democrats as pulling a partisan stunt, instead of highlighting the extremely unethical nature of what the GOP was trying to do.