Associated Press: Judge: Redistricting guru’s documents no longer confidential

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A North Carolina judge ruled on Monday that more than 100,000 computer documents generated by a recently deceased Republican redistricting guru that address political work in several states are no longer under the court’s confidentiality order.

The files were collected earlier this year by Common Cause, the North Carolina Democratic Party and Democratic voters — through a subpoena of the daughter of Thomas Hofeller — for their partisan gerrymandering lawsuit that went to trial in July. Hofeller died last year. …

That order came shortly after some of those files were used in separate litigation in New York challenging a plan by President Donald Trump’s administration to include a citizenship question on the 2020 U.S. census. …

“The limited release of Dr. Hofeller’s files has already proven critical in exposing secret efforts to manipulate the census and redistricting,” said Kathay Feng, national redistricting director for Common Cause. “Now the truth can come out about all of Hofeller’s shocking efforts to rig elections in almost every state.” …

Common Cause is consulting with its attorneys to determine how and when the documents would be made public, spokesman Bryan Warner said. …

The “files have immense public significance and value. They contain evidence that will be vital to voting rights litigation in North Carolina and across the country,” the plaintiffs wrote in the Sept. 13 legal brief.

Several organizations asked the state court to allow the disclosure of more documents, including The Associated Press and The New York Times.