By The Editors

The effort of the Obama administration to restore the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division as an agent of the nation’s civil rights laws has apparently shifted into high gear.

US Attorney General Eric H. Holder, Jr.

Attorney General Eric H. Holder, Jr., in an interview with the New York Times, said that 50 more attorneys were being hired for the division and that it would now aggressively pursue “high-impact civil rights” cases in such areas as voting rights, housing, employment, bank lending practices and redistricting after the 2010 Census.

The administration’s move has been expected since President Obama’s November victory as part of a widely-held belief that the entire Justice Department had been substantially damaged by political interference from the Bush White House.

As several reports documented, the civil rights unit’s work was undermined by the appointment of unqualified political appointees, the forced departures of many of its veteran attorneys, and the hiring of new attorneys who were ideologically opposed to federal civil rights laws and regulations.

John Payton, President and Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, was among those who welcomed the return of the division to its “historic mission.”