The Michigan redistricting commission hasn’t made public certain documents it used pertaining to Voting Rights Act compliance. If the documents show that the commission relied on a quantitative analysis of racial polarization in voting, their release could actually be helpful to the commission, helping to defuse any allegation of racial gerrymandering.

Three news outlets and the Michigan Press Association filed suit Tuesday in the Michigan Supreme Court to force Michigan’s Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission to release records they say should be public.

The emergency complaint from the The Detroit News, Bridge Magazine and Detroit Free Press seeks recordings from an Oct. 27 closed-door session and several confidential memos submitted to the commission on the basis that the state constitution requires the commission to conduct all business in public and to publish “all data and supporting materials” used while preparing the redistricting plans. 

“We made every effort to convince the redistricting commission to follow the law and, unfortunately, all of those attempts failed,” said Gary Miles, editor and publisher of The Detroit News. “As the first independent citizens redistricting commission, this group will set the precedent for decades. That precedent must be for openness and not secrecy.”