Arbor Hill Concerned Citizens v. County of Albany

• Decision Date: 28 January 2004
• Docket Number: Docket No. 03-9204.,Docket No. 03-9132(L).
• Citation: 357 F.3d 260
• Parties: ARBOR HILL CONCERNED CITIZENS NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION, Aaron Mair, Maryam Mair, Mildred Chang and Albany County Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Plaintiffs-Appellants-Cross-Appellees, v. COUNTY OF ALBANY and ALBANY COUNTY BOARD OF ELECTIONS, Defendants-Appellees. Albany County Republican Committee and Republican Caucus of the Albany County Legislature, Intervenors-Cross-Appellants. Christopher Earl STRUNK, Movant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit

357 F.3d 260

ARBOR HILL CONCERNED CITIZENS NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION, Aaron Mair, Maryam Mair, Mildred Chang and Albany County Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Plaintiffs-Appellants-Cross-Appellees, v. COUNTY OF ALBANY and ALBANY COUNTY BOARD OF ELECTIONS, Defendants-Appellees Albany County Republican Committee and Republican Caucus of the Albany County Legislature, Intervenors-Cross-Appellants Christopher Earl STRUNK, Movant.

Docket No. 03-9132(L).

Docket No. 03-9204.

United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit.

Argued: January 28, 2004.

Decided: January 28, 2004.

Mitchell A. Karlan, New York, New York (Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, New York, New York, Derohannesian & Derohannesian, Albany, New York, Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Washington, D.C., on the brief), for Plaintiffs-Appellants-Cross-Appellees.

Michael C. Lynch, Albany County Attorney, Albany, New York, for Defendant-Appellees.

Thomas Marcelle, Delmar, New York, for Intervenor-Cross-Appellants.

Before: NEWMAN, KEARSE, and CALABRESI, Circuit Judges.

PER CURIAM.

Plaintiffs Arbor Hill Concerned Citizens Neighborhood Association et al. appeal from so much of an October 22, 2003 order of the United States District Court for the Northern District of New York, Norman A. Mordue, Judge, as refused to order a special election to remedy violations of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 ("VRA"), 42 U.S.C. § 1973, with respect to the districting for elections to the Albany County Legislature ("Legislature"). For the reasons that follow, we reverse and remand, with instructions that a special primary election for the Legislature be held on March 2, 2004, in coordination with the national primary elections scheduled to be held on that date, and that a special general election for the Legislature be held expeditiously thereafter in accordance with a date or deadline to be set by the district court.

Plaintiffs commenced the present action in April 2003, alleging that the then-current legislative redistricting plan adopted by defendant Albany County ("County") violated § 2 of the VRA. Plaintiffs sought a preliminary injunction prohibiting the County and its Board of Elections from conducting elections for the Legislature until a new redistricting plan was adopted that did not violate the VRA or the Constitution. Following proceedings before a magistrate judge, the district court issued an order stating, inter alia, that

defendants are enjoined from conducting the scheduled [November] 2003 election of Albany County legislators pending adoption by the legislature of a new redistricting plan which creates a fourth majority/minority district determined to be compliant with the Voting Rights Act....

Arbor Hill Concerned Citizens Neighborhood Association v. County of Albany, 281 F.Supp.2d 436, 456 (N.D.N.Y. 2003) ("Arbor Hill I").

The Arbor Hill I order provided for further proceedings before the magistrate judge with respect to the submission and evaluation of revised redistricting plans. Id. at 457. Thereafter, the parties submitted such plans, and the district court, in an order dated October 22, 2003, accepted the recommendation of the magistrate judge that the redistricting plan submitted by the County be accepted as compliant with the VRA. See Arbor Hill Concerned Citizens Neighborhood Association v. County of Albany, 289 F.Supp. 2d 269, 276 (N.D.N.Y. 2003) ("Arbor Hill II"). The district court also dissolved so much of the preliminary injunction as forbade the County to conduct elections for the Legislature; however, it was by this time too late for the new redistricting plan to be implemented in time for the normal November elections.

Plaintiffs, the County, and intervenors Albany County Republican Committee et al., noting that the County itself did not have the power to schedule a special election, urged the district court to order the county to hold a special election for the Legislature. The district court refused, indicating that it lacked the power to do so. See id. at 276 ("If the County does not have the power to authorize a special election why would this Court have such authority?"). Although noting that the prior redistricting plan had "flagrantly violated the rights of minority voters," id., the court stated that

[t]his Court's obligation was to review the original objectionable redistricting plan, identify a violation of the Voting Rights Act, if any, and direct its remediation. This the Court has done. That voters in Albany County may not have the opportunity to elect new legislators based on the remedial redistricting plan approved herein by the Court while a regrettable occurrence, is neither the fault of this Court nor the concern of federal courts in general.

Id. at 276. We disagree.

When the court has determined that there has been a VRA violation, it has the power to, and normally should, order that remedial steps be taken. The scope of federal courts' power to remedy apportionment violations is defined by principles of equity. See generally Reynolds v. Sims, 377 U.S. 533, 585, 84 S.Ct. 1362, 12 L.Ed.2d 506 (1964). It is within the...