FOI AT WORK: The Rehnquist Files

If you haven't seen it yet, Slate's Hot Document feature is a riveting look at a record unveiled from the dark recesses of government -- and FOIA almost always plays a key role. Today's offering:

The memos, released recently under the Freedom of Information Act, were written prior to the late jurist's Senate confirmation as associate justice of the Supreme Court in 1971 and as chief justice in 1986. (For previous Rehnquist "Hot Documents" gleaned from the release, see here and here.)

Today's memo (see below and on the following 11 pages) preceeded Rehnquist's first Senate confirmation. It addressed the question of whether Rehnquist, who was then working in President Richard Nixon's Justice Department, was a racist. That the issue even had to be raised gives you some sense of how abysmal Rehnquist's civil rights record was.

It's a heck of a read.