The U.S. Justice Department has been cleared to send lawyers to polling sites in Missouri and Texas on Election Day to monitor compliance with federal voting rights laws after those Republican-led states had sued to block it from doing so.

The lawsuit, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri by the state's attorney general and secretary of state, accuses the Justice Department of making an 11th hour plan that intends to "displace state election authorities" by sending poll monitors on Tuesday to locations throughout St.