Blacks United for Lasting Leadership, Inc. v. City of Shreveport

• Citation: 571 F.2d 248
• Decision Date: 29 March 1978
• Docket Number: No. 76-3619,76-3619
• Parties: BLACKS UNITED FOR LASTING LEADERSHIP, INC., et al., Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. The CITY OF SHREVEPORT et al., Defendants-Appellants, Louisiana Municipal Association, Intervenor.
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (5th Circuit)

Page 248

571 F.2d 248

BLACKS UNITED FOR LASTING LEADERSHIP, INC., et al Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. The CITY OF SHREVEPORT et al., Defendants-Appellants Louisiana Municipal Association, Intervenor.

No. 76-3619.

United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit.

March 29, 1978.

John Gallagher, George C. (Neil) Dixon, Asst. City Atty., Shreveport, La., for City of Shreveport, Allen, Burton and Hathaway.

Charles C. Grubb, Shreveport, La., William J. Guste, Jr., Atty. Gen., Baton Rouge, La., A. Mills McCawley, Asst. Atty. Gen., Shreveport, La., for Edwards and Martin.

Charles E. Williams, III, NAACP Legal Defense Fund, Jack Greenberg, New York City, Hilry Huckaby, III, Shreveport, La., Eric Schnapper, New York City, for plaintiffs-appellees.

R. Gordon Kean, Jr., Baton Rouge, La., for other interested parties.

Dennis J. Dimsey, Brian K. Landsberg, Walter W. Barnett, Miriam R. Eisenstein, Attys., Drew S. Days, III, Asst. Atty. Gen., Appellate Section, Civil Rights Div., Dept. of Justice, Washington, D. C., for amicus curiae, U. S. A.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana.

Before WISDOM, SIMPSON and TJOFLAT, Circuit Judges.

TJOFLAT, Circuit Judge:

This is the third of four consolidated voting dilution cases we decide today. See Nevett v. Sides (Nevett II), 571 F.2d 209, 213 n. 1 (5th Cir. 1978). Black citizens of Shreveport, Louisiana, and organizations representing their interests brought this class action to strike down the at-large system for electing the city commissioners of Shreveport. The black citizens, who in 1974 constituted thirty-two percent of the voting population, alleged that the at-large feature operated unconstitutionally to dilute their votes. The district court agreed and declared the commission plan unconstitutional under the fourteenth amendment to the Constitution. Blacks United for Lasting Leadership, Inc. v. City of Shreveport, 71 F.R.D. 623, 636 (W.D.La.1976). The district court, however, did not order the implementation of a plan incorporating single-member districts. Rather, the court ordered the city and other defendants to formulate a constitutional plan within one year from the date of the judgment, July 16, 1976. The defendants bring this appeal, urging that the district court erred in declaring the commission plan unconstitutional and in ordering the submission of a new plan. Because the district court failed to undertake properly the factual inquiry mandated by our opinion of today in Nevett II, ¹ we must remand this case for further proceedings.

I

A five-member commission governs the City of Shreveport. All the commissioners are elected at-large in contests for numbered positions corresponding to specific municipal departments of city-wide responsibility. ² These features of Shreveport's electoral system derive from a state enactment of 1910 that authorized the organization of municipalities under commission government. 1910 La. Acts No. 302. In that year, Shreveport adopted an at-large plan substantially resembling the one presently in force. In 1948, the state legislature proposed an amendment to article 14, section 37 of the 1921 Louisiana Constitution. That amendment authorized the City of Shreveport to establish by referendum a home-rule charter. 1948 La. Acts No. 529. The proposed amendment was adopted by statewide referendum in 1948, and electors in Shreveport voted to adopt a local charter in 1950. The charter government that eventuated is the subject of this action.

Under state law, municipal elections are subject to a majority vote requirement, La.Rev.Stat.Ann. § 18:358 (West 1969), but there are no party primaries. Commission candidates are not required to reside in subdistricts; they need only live within the city limits.

II

The issue in this appeal is the adequacy of the district court's findings of fact. In cases tried without a jury, Fed.R.Civ.P. 52(a) requires the district court to "find the facts specially and state separately its conclusions of law thereon." What the rule means is that "(f)indings of fact must be made in sufficient detail and exactness 'to indicate the factual basis for the ultimate conclusion' reached by the court." S.S. Silberblatt, Inc. v. United States, 353 F.2d 545, 549 (5th Cir. 1965) (quoting Kelley v. Everglades Drainage District, 319 U.S. 415, 422, 63 S.Ct. 1141, 87 L.Ed. 1485 (1943) ) (footnote omitted). We conclude that the district court did not make the required findings in this case.

We have discussed fully the precepts of voting dilution in our opinion of today in Nevett II. See note 1 supra. To reiterate briefly, in Nevett II we read Zimmer v. McKeithen, 485 F.2d 1297 (5th Cir. 1973) (en banc), aff'd on other grounds sub nom. East Carroll Parish School Board v. Marshall, 424 U.S. 636, 96 S.Ct. 1083, 47 L.Ed.2d 296 (1976), as establishing a multifactor circumstantial evidence test for dilution. In Zimmer, the en banc court synthesized the dilution principles of two Supreme Court opinions, White v. Regester, 412 U.S. 755, 93 S.Ct. 2332, 37 L.Ed.2d 314 (1973), and Whitcomb v. Chavis, 403 U.S. 124, 91 S.Ct. 1858, 29 L.Ed.2d 363 (1971). In Regester, the Court upheld a finding of dilution by a three-judge district court. The district court had relied upon certain circumstantial evidence that led it to conclude that the scheme was unconstitutional. This evidence included findings of past official discrimination that impinged upon the right of blacks to register, vote, and "participate in the democratic processes," and of certain electoral devices that "enhanced the opportunity for racial discrimination." ³ 412 U.S. at 766, 93 S.Ct. at 2340. Additionally, and "(m)ore fundamentally," party nominating procedures worked unfairly to exclude blacks from the slating process. Id. at 766-67, 93 S.Ct. 2332.

On the other hand, in Chavis the Court reversed a judgment of a three-judge district court that had found certain multimember state legislative districts in Indiana unconstitutional. The Court found that blacks had enjoyed an equal opportunity "to participate in the political processes and to elect legislators of their choice." 403 U.S. at 149, 91 S.Ct. at 1872. Nothing in the record had shown that blacks had been discouraged from registering, voting, choosing a political party, or participating in the slating of candidates. Of particular significance to the Court, the district court had made no finding indicating a lack of responsiveness on the part of the at-large representatives to the interests of blacks. 403 U.S. at 155, 91 S.Ct. 1858.

The en banc court in Zimmer synthesized the dilution principles of Regester and Chavis by establishing certain criteria that a district court must address in deciding a dilution case. Essentially, Zimmer drew its criteria from the facts considered significant by the Supreme Court in Regester and Chavis. Certain facts were seen to go primarily to the ultimate issue of dilution. They included a lack of access to candidate slating processes, the unresponsiveness of representatives to the needs of blacks, the presence of a tenuous state policy in favor of at-large districting, and the existence of past discrimination that precludes effective participation by blacks in the electoral system. Zimmer, 485 F.2d at 1305. Additional factors were considered enhancive of an indication of dilution under the primary criteria. These enhancing factors included the existence of a large district, a majority vote requirement, anti-single shot voting provisions, and the absence of subdistrict residency requirements. We have interpreted the en banc court's reliance upon these indicia as establishing categories of factual inquiry. Nevett II, 571 F.2d at 223. The criteria are designed to elicit circumstantial evidence of intentional dilution. Id.

It is the obligation of the district court to make specific factual findings under each of the criteria. The court should next determine whether the aggregate of the evidence preponderates in favor of a finding of dilution. See id. at 224; Zimmer, 485 F.2d at 1305. As we said recently in David v. Garrison, 553 F.2d 923, 930 (5th Cir. 1977), "(a) full weighing and balancing of all of (the criteria) is called for so that a decision based on the aggregate of the factors may be made." This the district court failed to do.

Before we examine in detail what the district court did in this case and set forth what it should do on remand, we feel constrained to clear up what appears to be a misunderstanding on the part of the district court concerning the precedential value of Zimmer. The Supreme Court affirmed Zimmer, "but without approval of the constitutional views expressed by the Court of Appeals." East Carroll Parish School Board v. Marshall, 424 U.S. 636, 638, 96 S.Ct. 1083, 1085, 47 L.Ed.2d 296 (1976) (footnote omitted). The appellants contend, as they did in the proceedings below, that by this language the Court intended to overturn the analysis that led the en banc court to its determination of unconstitutionality. This contention has support in neither logic nor law. Obviously, "without approval" is not equivalent to " disapproval." The language of the Court, on its face, intimates neither approval nor disapproval. The rationale of Marshall reaffirms this interpretation, since the disposition of the case was on remedial grounds.

Initially, Zimmer was a quantitative reapportionment case. See also Nevett II, 571 F.2d at 215. The plaintiff, Zimmer, was a white resident of East Carroll Parish, and he brought suit alleging that population inequalities among the wards in the parish operated to violate the one person, one vote principle in elections for police jury and school board. The district court found the apportionment unconstitutional and ordered the establishment of at-large plans for elections for both bodies. Elections under this plan were held in 1969 and 1970. After the completion of the 1970 census, the district...