WASHINGTON — The Obama administration on Thursday moved to protect minority voters after last month's Supreme Court ruling striking down a central part of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, with the Justice Department asking a court to require Texas to get permission from the federal government before making changes.
In a speech before the National Urban League in Philadelphia, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. said the request would be the first of several legal salvos from the administration in reaction to the Supreme Court's decision. "My colleagues and I are determined to use every tool at our disposal," he said, "to stand against such discrimination wherever it is found."
Last month's ruling, Shelby County v. Holder, did away with a requirement that Texas and eight other states, mostly in the South, get permission from the Justice Department or a federal court before changing election procedures. On Thursday, the administration asked a federal court in Texas to restore that "preclearance" requirement there, citing the state's recent history and relying on a different part of the voting rights law.
Republicans harshly criticized the announcement, in a sign that both parties view the battle over voting laws as important to future elections.
Gov. Rick Perry of Texas cast Mr. Holder's remarks as an attempt by the Obama administration to weaken the state's voter-integrity laws and said the comments demonstrated the administration's "utter contempt for our country's system of checks and balances."
"This end run around the Supreme Court undermines the will of the people of Texas, and casts unfair aspersions on our state's common-sense efforts to preserve the integrity of our elections process," Mr. Perry said in a statement.
For years, Republicans across the nation have pushed for tougher voter identification laws, shorter voting hours and other measures they say are intended to reduce voter fraud. The efforts have intensified across the South, from Texas to North Carolina, after the Supreme Court's ruling freed many states and localities from federal oversight.
Democrats have said the steps are intended to reduce voting by minorities, students and other heavily Democratic groups.
State Representative Trey Martinez Fischer, Democrat of San Antonio, who is the chairman of the Mexican-American Legislative Caucus, said racial discrimination in Texas was not a thing of the past.
"The fact that intervention in Texas is the Department of Justice's first action to protect voting rights following the Shelby County decision speaks volumes about the seriousness of Texas' actions," Mr. Fischer said.
"Texans should be proud that the resources of the federal government will be brought to bear to protect the voting rights of all," he added.
President Obama mentioned his concern about voting problems — especially long waits at the ballot box — in both his victory speech on the night of his re-election and in his second Inaugural Address. Several recent polls and studies found that voters in heavily Democratic areas face longer lines, although the reasons remain unclear.
The new move by the Justice Department relies on a part of the Voting Rights Act that the Supreme Court left untouched in the Shelby County case. The court struck down the coverage formula in Section 4 of the law, which had identified places subject to the preclearance requirement based on 40-year-old data. The court suggested that Congress remained free to enact a new coverage formula based on contemporary data, but most analysts say that is unlikely.
Striking down the law's coverage formula effectively guts Section 5 of the law, which requires permission from federal authorities before covered jurisdictions may change voting procedures.
The move by the Justice Department on Thursday relies on a different part of the law, Section 3, which allows the federal government to get to largely the same place by a different route, called "bail-in." If the department can show that given jurisdictions have committed constitutional violations, federal courts may impose federal oversight on those places in a piecemeal fashion.
Lawyers for minority groups have already asked a court in Texas to return the state to federal oversight. The Justice Department's action — filing a "statement of interest" in that case — will bring the weight of the federal government behind those efforts.
Richard H. Pildes, a New York University professor who specializes in election law issues, said the move was "a dramatically significant moment in the next phase of the Voting Rights Act's development" after the Supreme Court's ruling.
Ashley Southall and Jonathan Martin contributed reporting from Washington, and Manny Fernandez from Houston.
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