Correspondence from Reynolds and Jones to Guinier

    U.S. Department of Justice 

  

WBR:GWJ:JGH: ce Washington, D.C. 20530 
DJ 166-012-3 
E3028 

Ms. Lani Guinier 
NAACP Legal Defense Fund 
10 Columbus Circle 
New York, N., Y.: 16019 

Re: Major v. Treen, C.A. No. 82-1192 
(E.D. La.) (F.S. 82-0501) 
  

Dear Ms. Guinier: 

This in reference to your letters of December 17 and 
21, 1982 concerning our files on the Section 5 submission of 
the Louisiana congressional reapportionment plan. On December 
20-21, 1982, you visited our offices and reviewed and copied 
most of our files on this matter. Since you also requested 
the factual portions of our internal memoranda, as well as 
certain other items, we agreed at that time to advise you 
further on those additional materials. 

Since your visit, we have completed our review of 
all the materials that you requested. In response to your 
request, we have included herewith the following: 

1. Travel authorizations and vouchers of 
Mr. Wm. Bradford Reynolds for three 
trips taken to Louisiana in 1981. 
Mr. Reynolds' itineraries for these 
trips are also enclosed, together with 
receipts that were attached to the vouchers. 
These were the only trips to Louisiana taken 
by Mr. Reynolds during 1981 and 1982. 

We have examined all of the schedules of 
meetings for Mr. Reynolds between February 
1, 1982 and July 31, 1982. The only schedules 
which contained references to the issue of 
congressional reapportionment in Louisiana 
were the weeks of January 11, May 24, May 31, 

and June 14, 1982. Copies of those weekly 
schedules are enclosed. Please note that we 
have excised those portions of the schedules 
that are unrelated to Louisiana congressional 
reapportionment.  



Mr. Reynolds held no meetings with officials of 
the State of Louisiana concerning congressional 
reapportionment other than the meetings described 
above. 

We have also examined all of the available 
logs of "outstanding telephone calls" between 
October 1981 and July 1982, and we have included 
those portions of all of the logs that contained 
references to Louisiana congressional redistrict- 
ing. As with the weekly schedules described 
in paragraph 2 above, we have excised those 
listings on the telephone logs that do not 
relate to Louisiana congressional redistricting. 

The entries on these logs reflect telephone 
calls made to Mr. Reynolds when he was either 
out of the office or otherwise not available. 
There is no log of outgoing telephone calls 
made by Mr. Reynolds, nor is there a log of 
calls actually taken by Mr. Reynolds while 
in his office. Also, there are no memos, 
documents or other materials which recorded 
any of the conversations identified on the 
telephone logs. 

Mr. Reynolds' handwritten notes of meetings 
held with Louisiana Governor David Treen on 
January 11, 1982 and May 31, 1982. Attached 
to Mr. Reynolds' notes from the May 31, 1982 
meeting is a listing of other persons who 
also attended that meeting. 

An excerpted version of a memorandum written 
by Mr. Robert N. Kwan, an attorney in the 
Voting Section. The abbreviated version of 
the memorandum retains generally the facts 
as set forth by Mr. Kwan, but we have 
excised those portions showing Mr. Kwan's 
analysis of those facts and his application 
of the appropriate legal standard. Of course, 
the analysis and conclusions relied on by Mr. 
Reynolds in reaching his decision are set 
forth in his memorandum of June 18, 1982, a 
copy of which has already been provided to you.  



You also have asked us to produce the original of 
Mr. Reynolds' memorandum to the file dated June 18, 1982, and the lexitron diskette on which it was typed. We are 
unable to release to you the original of the memorandum 
since it is our policy to maintain such originals within 
the Department. For similar reasons we are unable to 
release the diskette. 

In regard to this request, however, we note that when 
you visited our offices on December 20-21, 1982, you inspected the original of the memorandum dated June 18,1982, At 
that time, you informed attorneys in the Voting Section 
that you wanted to obtain the original of that memorandum 
and the lexitron diskette on which it was typed so that 
you could determine the date on which the June 18, 1982, 
memorandum was typed. As it appears on the diskette, the 
June 18 memorandum is undated, but in all other respects 
is identical to the memorandum provided to your co-counsel, 
Mr. Kellogg, last July. The diskette does not reveal the 
precise date that the memo was typed. The date was apparently 
typed on the memorandum after it was printed from the 
diskette. However, other documents on the diskette are 
dated mid-July 1982, and we believe that the memorandum at 
issue was typed at approximately the same time. We can 
assure you that the memorandum was typed sometime after 
the mailing of the June 18, 1982 decision letter. The 
memorandum was dated June 18, 1982, since it was drawn to 
record, for Departmental record purposes, the reasons for 
the June 18, 1982 decision. To the best of Mr. Reynolds’ 
recollection, he drafted the June 18, 1982 memo in handwritten 
form either on that date or within a few days thereafter. 
We have searched Departmental files and it appears that 
Mr. Reynolds' handwritten draft of the June 18 memorandum 
has been discarded, as is our customary practice with 
regard to handwritten drafts. 

 



We believe that this response complies fully with 
your request for factual information. As we have noted in 
the past, we are willing to cooperate with you in this 
matter to the fullest extent possible. However, we must, 
at the same time, iterate our basic position that the Attorney 
General's application of Section 5 to a particular factual 
situation such as this is not subject to judicial review 
and is not discoverable. See Morris v. Gressette, 432 U.S. 

491 (1977). 
  

Please feel free to contact us if you have any 
questions. 

Sincerely, 

Wm. Bradford Reynolds 
Assistant Attorney General 

Civil Rights pig 

Cit a 
SThiet Voting | Section