From fiscal years 2001 through 2007, the Employment Litigation Section initiated more than 3,200 matters and filed 60 cases as plaintiff under federal statutes prohibiting employment discrimination. About 90 percent of the matters initiated (2,846 of 3,212) and more than half of the cases filed (33 of 60) alleged violations of section 706 of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which involves individual claims of employment discrimination. Much of the Section’s matters are driven by what the Section receives from other agencies. During the 7-year period, about 96 percent of the matters (3,087 of 3,212) initiated were as a result of referrals from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Department of Labor. The number of matters initiated under section 706 and the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA) declined in the latter fiscal years, which a Section Chief attributed to a decline in referrals from these two agencies. In addition to addressing discrimination against individuals, the Section also initiated more than 100 pattern or practice matters at its own discretion. Because the Section did not require staff to maintain information in ICM on the subjects (e.g., harassment and retaliation) of the matters or the protected class (e.g., race and religion) of the individuals who were allegedly discriminated against, we could not determine this information for more than 80 percent of the matters the Section closed from fiscal years 2001 through 2007. According to Section officials, staff are not required to do so because the Section does not view this information as necessary for management purposes. The Section also does not systematically collect information in ICM on the reasons matters were closed; therefore, we were not able to readily determine this information for the approximately 3,300 matters the Section closed over the time period of our review. Division officials stated that when planning for ICM’s implementation with Section officials, the Division did not consider requiring sections to provide protected class and subject data or the need to capture in ICM the reasons that matters are closed. However, by conducting interviews with agency officials and reviewing files for a nongeneralizable sample of 49 closed matters, we were able to determine that the reasons the Section closed these matters included, among others, the facts in the file would not justify prosecution, the issue was pursued through private litigation, and the employer provided or offered appropriate relief on its own. In addition to the matters initiated, the Employment Litigation Section filed 60 cases in court as plaintiff from fiscal years 2001 through 2007, and filed more than half (33 of 60) under section 706 of Title VII. According to a Section Chief and Deputy Section Chief, the primary reason for pursuing a case was that the case had legal merit. Other priorities, such as those of the Assistant Attorney General, may also influence the Section’s decision to pursue particular kinds of cases. For example, according to Section officials, following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the Assistant Attorney General asked the various sections within the Division to make the development of cases involving religious discrimination a priority. During the 7-year period, the majority of the section 706 cases (18 of 33) involved sex discrimination against women, and one-third (11 of 33) involved claims of race discrimination, with six cases filed on behalf of African Americans and five cases filed on behalf of whites. In addition to these 33 cases, the Section filed 11 pattern or practice cases. Most of the 11 pattern or practice cases involved claims of discrimination in hiring (9 of 11) and the most common protected class was race (7 of 11), with four cases filed on behalf of African Americans, two on behalf of whites, and one on behalf of American Indians or Alaska Natives. In July 2009, Section officials told us that given that the Assistant Attorneys General who authorized suits from fiscal years 2001 through 2007 and the Section Chief who made suit recommendations to the Assistant Attorneys General during that period are no longer employed by DOJ, it would be inappropriate for them to speculate as to why the Section focused its efforts in particular areas. From fiscal years 2001 through 2007, the Housing and Civil Enforcement Section initiated 947 matters and participated in 277 cases under federal statutes prohibiting discrimination in housing, credit transactions, and certain places of public accommodation (e.g., hotels). The Section has the discretion to investigate matters and bring cases under all of the statutes it enforces, with the exception of certain cases referred under the Fair Housing Act (FHA) from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), which the Section is statutorily required to file. The Section, however, has discretion about whether to add a pattern or practice allegation to these HUD-referred election cases, if supported by the evidence. Furthermore, the Section has the authority and discretion to independently file pattern or practice cases and to pursue referrals from other sources. During the 7-year period, the Section initiated more matters (517 of 947) and participated in more cases (257 of 277) involving discrimination under the FHA than any other statute or type of matter or case. The Section initiated nearly 90 percent of the FHA matters (456 of 517) under its pattern or practice authority; these primarily alleged discrimination on the basis of race or disability and involved land use/zoning/local government or rental issues. According to Section officials, the large number of land use/zoning/local government matters it initiated was due to the Section regularly receiving referrals from HUD and complaints from other entities on these issues. Additionally, Division officials identified that a Section priority during the 7-year period was to ensure that zoning and other regulations concerning land use were not used to hinder the residential choices of individuals with disabilities. During this time, the Section experienced a general decline in HUD election matters, with the Section initiating the fewest number of total matters, 106, in fiscal year 2007. Section officials attributed the decrease, in part, to a decline in HUD referrals because state and local fair housing agencies were handling more complaints of housing discrimination instead of HUD. The Section initiated the second largest number of matters (252 of 947) under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA). About 70 percent (177 of 252) of these ECOA matters included allegations of discrimination based on age, marital status, or both. The majority (250 of 269) of the cases that the Section filed as plaintiff included a claim under the FHA. Similar to the Employment Litigation Section, the Housing Section considers legal merit and whether the plaintiff has the resources to proceed on his or her own should the Section choose not to get involved, among other reasons, when deciding whether to pursue a matter as a case. The number of cases filed by the Section each year generally decreased from fiscal years 2001 through 2007—from 53 to 35—which, similar to matters, Section officials generally attributed to fewer HUD referrals. The FHA cases primarily involved rental issues (146). According to Section officials, the number of rental-related issues is reflective of larger national trends in that discrimination in rental housing may be more frequently reported or easier to detect than in home sales. Most of the FHA cases alleged discrimination on the basis of disability (115) or race (70)—66 of which involved racial discrimination against African Americans. The Section filed 9 cases under ECOA, of which 5 were in combination with the FHA. All 9 complaints involved lending issues. Seven of the 9 complaints included at least one allegation of racial discrimination and 4 included at least one allegation of discrimination on the basis of national origin/ethnicity. From fiscal years 2001 through 2007, the Voting Section initiated 442 matters and filed 56 cases to enforce federal statutes that protect the voting rights of racial and language minorities, disabled and illiterate persons, and overseas and military personnel, among others. The Voting Section has the discretion to initiate a matter or pursue a case under its statutes, with the exception of the review of changes in voting practices or procedures, which it is statutorily required to conduct under section 5 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA). According to Section officials, the Section had as its priority the enforcement of all the statutes for which it was responsible throughout the period covered by our review. However, Section and Division officials identified shifts in the Section’s priorities beginning in 2002. For example, the Assistant Attorney General in place from November 2005 through August 2007 stated that since 2002, the Section had increased its enforcement of the minority language provisions of the VRA and instituted the most vigorous outreach efforts to jurisdictions covered by the minority language provisions of the act. During the 7-year period, the Section initiated nearly 70 percent of VRA matters (246 of 367) on behalf of language minority groups, primarily Spanish speakers (203 of 246). The Section also initiated 162 matters under section 2 of the VRA. The Section initiated about half of these matters on behalf of language minority groups (80), primarily Spanish speakers (71), and about half on behalf of racial minorities (88 of 162), primarily African American voters (71 of 88). During the 7-year period, the Voting Section filed 56 cases, primarily under the VRA (39). The majority of the cases the Section filed in court under the VRA were on behalf of language minority groups (30 of 39), primarily Spanish speakers (27). The Acting Assistant Attorney General reported in September 2008 that the Division had brought more cases under the VRA’s minority language provisions during the past 7 years—a stated priority— than in all other years combined since 1975. While cases involving language minority groups were filed under various VRA provisions, the largest number of cases (24 of 30) involved claims under section 203 alleging that the covered jurisdiction had failed to provide voting-related materials or information relating to the electoral process in the language of the applicable minority group.