The Bush administration was often accused of politicizing the Justice Department (in many cases, the Bush administration was just doing the exact same thing the Clinton administration had been doing).
Today, the Washington Post reported that Attorney General Holder has rejected the legal opinion of the Department's Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) that the D.C. voting rights bill pending in Congress is unconstitutional. The new OLC is led by deputies selected and appointed by the Obama Administration. The current OLC reached the same conclusion that the OLC has since the early 1960s, i.e., that the bill is unconstitutional.
Holder was apparently unhappy with that conclusion and he asked the Solicitor General's office whether it "could defend the legislation if it were challenged after its enactment." Holder didn't ask whether the bill was constitutional, but whether a non-frivolous argument could be made in defense of its constitutionality. The SG's office concluded that one could be made.
This shows that Holder is keenly aware that the bill is unconstitutional, and Holder is sworn to uphold the Constitution, but he reversed the OLC decision based only on advice that a contrary view of the Constitution is not frivolous, which has little to do with constitutionality. It appears that Holder is aiming for political ends that favor his view of the world. Of course, we will hear nothing about politicization of the Obama DOJ from the media.
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