Papers Show Justice Officer OK'd 'Racist' Voter Plan News Clipping

    o p—— 

golse, |D 

(Ads Co.) 
\daho Stateman 

(D. 56,330) 

(Sun. 71,219) 

OCT 19 1983 

4 : : 

. Papers sh 
‘+ By JOHN HANCHETTE 

Gannett News Service 

WASHINGTON — The Justice 

Department's top civil rights of- 

ficer went to extraordinary 

lengths to satisfy state wishes on 

i a New Orleans voter-redistricting 

* plan recently described by a fed- 

eral court as ‘‘smacking of rac- 

ism." 
Justice Department documents 

obtained by Gannell News Serv- 

ice illustrate in unusual detail how 

controversial civil rights chief 

william Bradford Reynolds tried 

to satisly Louisiana officials over 

the objections of his own staff: 

Reynolds conferred with Loul- 

. siana Gov. David Treen 11 times 

before approving the plan. He 

also backdated a crucial mémo 

that allowed the plan to move 

ahead and ordered his staff to 

water down requests for justifica- 

tion of the plan. 

After two meetings and nine 

      

phone calls to Treen, Reynolds 

overruled his staff in the summer 

of 1082 and personally “pre 

cleared’ the plan. : 

The new congressional district 

created by the New Orleans plan 

— known as ‘“Gerryduck™ be- 

cause It looked on a map like the 

head of Donald Duck — neatly 

split the black vote and left white 

Jefferson parish whole for Rep. 

Bob Livingston, a personal friend 

of Treen's. 

Two weeks ago, a three-judge 

federal panel slapped down the 

plan as racist, saying It was 

merely “an electoral scheme 

which splinters a geographically 

concentrated black populace 

within a racially polarized parish, 

thus minimizing the black cit 

lzenry’s electoral participation.” 

The case was the first time In 

American history a court In 

validated a 
under the Voting Rights Act that 

redistricting plan | 

had recelved prior approval from 

the Justice Department. 

Reynolds’ spokesman, John 

Wilson, gave GNS a statement on 

behalf of Reynolds that sald, “The 

various allegations of political 

deals, overruling the staff, tele 

phone calls and backdated 

memos are absolutely untrue. In- 

ternal staff recommendations are 

just that — recommendations — 

which have no validity until ap- 

proved by those responsible for 

the decision.” 
Justice Department records 

show that Reynolds signed a 

three-page memo addressed 

merely “To: The File” and dated 

June 18, 1962 In which he ex- 

plained the rationale for his decl- 

sion. 
Fallure to file the decision by 

i time would have violated a 

deadline that could set back the 

plan 60 days and require Treen (0 

resubmit the entire proposal for 

Justice approval. 

More importantly, the June 18th 

date would place the Reynolds de- 

cision safely before the date on 

which Congress, without backing 

trom the Justice Department, 

strengthened the Voting Rights 

Act — June 23, 1982. 

Indeed, In the statement pro- 

vided GNS by the Justice spokes- 

man, Reynolds says “the plan 

was precleared by the depart- 

ment on June 18, 1982, prior to the 

expanded congressional version. 

Thus, the plan was appraised by 

the court under a new and ditfer- 

ent legal standard.” 

But Justice Department papers 

obtained by GNS show Reynolds 

officially did not write the June 

“plan, 

ow Justice officer OK'd ‘racist’ voter plan 
18th memo until a month later. 

The memo explaining his contro- 

versial decision was not even 

placed in the Justice Department 

file until July 19, 1982. ; 

A “routing and transmittal” slip 

signed on that day by Gerald W. 

Jones, chiel of the voting rights 

section, contains a scribbled note 

of puzzement ‘on the bottom: 

“please make sure this gets into 

the Sectlon 5 file. It's dated 6-18-62 

but I recelved It today." 

When Lani Guinier, attorney 

for the NAACP Lepal Defense 

Fund Which sued to block The 

received the material she 

asked for, it contained the sur- 

prising admission from Reynolds, 

in a letter over the signature of 

his voting rights chief Jones, that 

the crucial memo was indeed 

backdated. 
Lr