Buchanan v. City of Jackson, 81-5333

• Citation: 708 F.2d 1066
• Decision Date: 07 June 1983
• Docket Number: No. 81-5333,81-5333
• Parties: James L. BUCHANAN, et al., Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. The CITY OF JACKSON and the State of Tennessee, et al., Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (6th Circuit)

Page 1066

708 F.2d 1066

James L. BUCHANAN, et al., Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. The CITY OF JACKSON and the State of Tennessee, et al.,

Defendants-Appellees.

No. 81-5333.

United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit.

Argued Aug. 30, 1982.

Decided June 7, 1983.

Avon N. Williams, Jr., Richard H. Dinkins, Nashville, Tenn., Napolean B. Williams, Jr., New York City (argued), for plaintiffs-appellants.

Harold F. Johnson, Russell Rice, Sr., Rice & Rice, Jackson, Tenn., Thomas D. Silverstein (argued), Charles S. Rhyne, Washington, D.C., for City of Jackson, et al.

William M. Leech, Jr., Atty. Gen., William P. Sizer, Asst. Atty. Gen., Nashville, Tenn., for Governor of Tenn.

Before LIVELY and MARTIN, Circuit Judges, and RUBIN, District Judge ^*.

CARL B. RUBIN, District Judge.

Plaintiffs filed this action in March, 1977 challenging the at-large voting procedure for electing Jackson, Tennessee's three-member Board of Commissioner's.

In their Complaint, plaintiffs alleged that the at-large system violates the Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution and various federal statutes by diluting the voting strength of Jackson's black citizens and depriving them of meaningful participation in the political processes of that city. Four years after this suit was filed, the District Court granted defendants' Motion for Summary Judgment based upon the United States Supreme Court's decision in Mobile v. Bolden, 446 U.S. 55, 100 S.Ct. 1490, 64 L.Ed.2d 47 (1980). On appeal, plaintiffs contend that summary judgment on the disputed question of discriminatory intent was improper. Plaintiffs also seek reversal of the District Court on the ground that Rogers v. Lodge, --- U.S. ----, 102 S.Ct. 3272, 73 L.Ed.2d 1012 (1982), a second voting dilution case, and the recent amendment to the Voting Rights Act of 1965, 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1973 et seq., after the legal standards upon which the District Court based its decision.

The City of Jackson, Tennessee is governed by a three-member Board of Commissioners. Each Commissioner is elected at large and runs for one of three designated positions: (1) the Mayor, who serves as Commissioner of Public Affairs, Public Safety, Revenue and Finance; (2) the Commissioner of Streets, Health, and Sanitation and Public Improvements; and (3) the Commissioner of Education, Parks, Recreation & Public Property. An individual must designate which of these positions he is a candidate for and must receive a majority of the votes cast in order to be elected. In the event no candidate receives a majority, a run-off election is held between the two candidates receiving the most votes. Jackson has utilized the Commission form of government since 1915, when the General Assembly of the State of Tennessee enacted Chapter 168 of The Private Acts. Prior to that time, Jackson was governed by a Mayor and alderman elected by geographic district.

Plaintiffs in their Complaint made the following specific allegations in support of their contention that the at-large system for electing Jackson's Board of Commissioners results in unconstitutional vote dilution. First, plaintiffs claimed that the political processes leading to nomination and election in Jackson were not equally open to participation by blacks. In this regard, plaintiffs cited the fact that no black has ever been elected to the office of Commissioner or any other city-wide elective office, the lower registration rate of black voters alleged to be attributable to official action prior to 1950, racially polarized voting in instances where blacks had run for city-wide office, the few blacks who serve on various city boards, alleged discrimination against blacks in municipal employment, and the exclusion of blacks from the leadership of political party organizations within the city. Plaintiffs also claimed that historically based discrimination and segregation in housing, education, public facilities and employment, and an alleged disparity in the provision of municipal services between black and white neighborhoods, support their general allegations of unlawful vote dilution.

The District Court granted summary judgment on all of plaintiffs' statutory and constitutional claims based primarily on the Supreme Court's decision in Mobile v. Bolden, 446 U.S. 55, 100 S.Ct. 1490, 64 L.Ed.2d 47 (1980). In Bolden, a case strikingly similar to that now before us, ¹ the Supreme Court set forth the standard for determining the constitutionality of an at-large electoral system.

The Court in Bolden first held that in order to establish a violation of the Fifteenth Amendment, a plaintiff must show both a discriminatory motivation and an interference with the actual registration or voting process. 446 U.S. at 65, 100 S.Ct. at 1498. Because it was undisputed that blacks in Mobile "registered and voted without hindrance," the plaintiff's Fifteenth Amendment and Voting Rights Act claims were summarily rejected. ²

A majority of the Court in Bolden also agreed that an at-large voting system violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment only if it is shown that the system "was conceived or operated as a purposeful device to further racial discrimination." Whitcomb v. Chavis, 403 U.S. 124, 149, 91 S.Ct. 1858, 1872, 29 L.Ed.2d 363 (1971). The disproportionate effects of an electoral system do not alone establish a discriminatory purpose. 446 U.S. at 66, 100 S.Ct. at 1499. In applying this standard to the evidence relied upon by the lower courts in the case before it, however, no view commanded a majority of the Court.

Justice Stewart, writing for the plurality, rejected the District Court's primary reliance upon certain of the so-called Zimmer factors, derived from the decision of The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in Zimmer v. McKeithen, 485 F.2d 1297 (5th Cir.1973). ³ Although conceding that the circumstantial factors derived from Zimmer "may afford some evidence of a discriminatory purpose," the plurality stated that Zimmer criteria were not alone sufficient proof of such a purpose, and specifically rejected those relied upon by the District Court as "most assuredly insufficient." 446 U.S. at 73, 100 S.Ct. at 1502. ⁴

Four members of the Court in Bolden argued that assuming proof of a discriminatory intent was required, the evidence below established such intent. Justice White claimed that the plurality's piecemeal rejection of the circumstantial evidence relied upon by the courts below was inconsistent with the "totality of the circumstances" approach endorsed by the Court in White v. Regester, 412 U.S. 755, 93 S.Ct. 2332, 37 L.Ed.2d 314 (1973).

The District Court in this case summarily dismissed plaintiffs' statutory and Thirteenth Amendment claims for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted. Appellants have not pressed these claims on appeal. The District Court also rejected plaintiffs' Fifteenth Amendment claims based upon Bolden because the record established that blacks in Jackson registered and voted without interference. Although appellants take exception to this ruling, we find the application of Bolden to plaintiffs' Fifteenth Amendment claims appropriate. Absent any allegation of actual interference in the voting or registration processes, plaintiffs have failed to state a claim under the Fifteenth Amendment.

With respect to plaintiffs' claims under the Fourteenth Amendment, the District Court concluded that plaintiffs had "failed to offer any proof of discriminatory intent on the part of defendants," and that the additional allegations offered by the plaintiffs in opposition to defendants' Motion for Summary Judgment were insufficient to support a finding of purposeful discrimination under the standard established by Bolden. ⁵ The District Court also stated that plaintiffs had "failed to prove that the disputed plan was conceived to operate as a purposeful device to further racial discrimination. ⁶

The appellant argues that the District Court's decision should be overturned and the case remanded in light of Congress' recent amendment of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1973 et seq. and the recent Supreme Court decision in Rogers v. Lodge, --- U.S. ----, 102 S.Ct. 3272, 73 L.Ed.2d 1012 (1982). For reasons which will become apparent we will consider these developments in the reverse order from which they were raised.

Rogers v. Lodge, supra involved yet another challenge to an at-large procedure for electing a county Board of Commissioners under the Fourteenth Amendment. ⁷ Although Justice White, writing for the majority, did not overrule Bolden, the Court's decision in Rogers clearly represents a retreat from the plurality's views in that case.

The Supreme Court in Rogers first noted that the lower courts had correctly anticipated the intent standard set forth in Bolden. 102 S.Ct. at 3277-78. The courts below concluded that although the at-large system was racially neutral when it was adopted, it was being maintained for invidious purposes." Lodge v. Buxton, No. 78-3241, slip op. at 4 (S.D.Ga.1978). Emphasizing the deference to be accorded the District Court's findings of fact, particularly regarding issues of intent, the majority held that the District Judge's determination that the electoral system in Burke County was being maintained for discriminatory purposes was not clearly erroneous. 102 S.Ct. at 3278-79.

In marked contrast to the plurality opinion in Bolden where the various Zimmer factors relied upon by the lower courts were singled out and discredited, the Court in Rogers enumerated the lower courts' findings consisting largely of Zimmer factors, and endorsed a "totality of the circumstances" approach to the question of discriminatory intent. Id. at 3279-81. The Court concluded that the District Court had based its finding of discriminatory intent primarily on the existence of Zimmer factors, but found this acceptable because the Court had not limited its...