Tabella has this important post at ElectionLawCenter.com.  Tabella is referring to illustrative plans that the DOJ Voting Section is using internally to judge against submitted plans.  In essence, they are Max-Black plans of the sort roundly criticized by the Supreme Court and others, and often violate Shaw v. Reno.  These secret illustrative plans should be available in discovery by any plaintiff seeking federal court approval of plans, or more importantly, challenging Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act.

These secret illustrative plans are not the only strange tactic being employed by the Voting Section that represent a dramatic departure from the behavior of prior administrations.  A variety of unconventional investigative techniques in voting cases are also being employed.  More on that another day.

Back to the secret illustrative plans.  Tabella points out that it is high hypocrisy for the DOJ to assert that Texas inappropriately emphasized race when so many existing redistricting submissions are currently being compared to these secret internal illustrative plans that do precisely the same thing.  Were these bug-splat plans to see the light of day, the plaintiffs in the Shelby County, Kinston, Arizona, Georgia and Florida challenges to Section 5 would have a wild ride.  In any red-file
redistricting, the demographer staff at the Voting Section will be told to draw a plan with as many minority districts as possible.  These secret internal Max-Black plans become the aspirational standard for submissions.

Any submitting authority will recognize the signs of the secret plans.  DOJ staff have been instructed that they cannot ever give the illustrative plans to the submitting authority.  They, instead, are to suggest moving a district line in a certain direction, to grabbing new territory.  The instructions to DOJ staff to produce, but not disclose the secret plans, are explicit.  These instructions are yet another reason why jurisdictions should go straight to federal court for approval of redistricting plans instead of dealing with the illegal imposition of Max-Black solutions by Eric Holder’s DOJ.