Key passage in the civil rights legislation that has provoked the Southern filibuster is the Federal Referee Plan, devised by the Justice Department, incorporated into a House bill by Ohio Republican William McCulloch, and carried over as well to the Senate as the foremost of the Administration's proposals. This, in general, is how the plan would work:
1. When a voter complains to the U.S. Attorney General that he has been denied the right to vote, the Attorney General may request a federal court to determine whether a "pattern" of discrimination exists in the locality. If the court so finds, the...