I have noted that civil rights opponents of Judge Roberts’ nomination to the Supreme Court have pointed to his role in crafting the Reagan Administration’s initial opposition to amended the Voting Rights Act. In 1982, despite the Administration’s efforts, Congress passed amendments creating an “effects” test in section 2 of the VRA, achieving the goal of making it easier for minority plaintiffs to bring vote dilution claims following the Supreme Court’s decision in Mobile v. Bolden.
My earlier post noted that the memos prepared by Judge Roberts had not been released, so it was impossible to know the extent to which his own views on the desirability (or not) of the new section 2 were reflected in Administration policy. I had assumed that the Bush administration would block production of the memo, on grounds of executive privilege. I now think the memo will indeed be produced.
This Boston Globe report on Judge Roberts’ civil rights record notes that civil rights groups are intensely interested in the voting rights memos. Today’s Washington Post features this extensive article based upon memoranda Roberts prepared in other matters that are now available at the Reagan Library (a 30 minute ride from my house, by the way). And the New York Sun reports the following:

The Simi Valley, Calif., library lists hundreds of files prepared by Mr. Roberts on subjects ranging from the Abscam bribery scandal to humanitarian assistance to Nicaragua. About 4,200 pages of the files are available to the public, but the vast majority of his documents, numbering in the tens of thousands or more, are still awaiting processing.
Senate Democrats have said they will ask for full access to the records, but an archivist said the nonpublic files will be released only upon the request of the Bush administration.

So here the case against release of the documents falls apart. One cannot plausibly claim, as Shannen Coffin does here, that releasing the documents will chill candid speech of those lawyers working for the administration. The papers are 25 years old. Roberts’ papers on other topics from the year are already coming out, and the very papers of concern to the civil rights community apparently already would have been released, but for the administrative delay at the Reagan Library in having them produced. And apparently it will just take a phone call from the White House to get them released.