Chisom v. Edwards
| Decision Date | 29 February 1988 |
| Docket Number | No. 87-3463,87-3463 |
| Citation | 839 F.2d 1056 |
| Parties | Ronald CHISOM, et al., Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. Edwin EDWARDS, in his capacity as Governor of the State of Louisiana, et al., Defendants-Appellees. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit |
William P. Quigley, Ron Wilson, New Orleans, La., for plaintiffs-appellants.
Mark L. Gross, Justice Dept., Jessica Dunsay Silver, Washington, D.C., for amicus U.S.
Pamela S. Karlan, Charles Stephen Ralston, New York City, for Chisom Group.
Michael H. Rubin, Baton Rouge, La., Kendall L. Vick, Asst. Atty. Gen., La. Dept. of Justice, M. Truman Woodward, Jr., New Orleans, La., for amicus LDJA.
Michael B. Wallace, Jackson, Miss., Daniel J. Popeo, Washington Legal Foundation, Washington, D.C., A.R. Christovich, Jr., Moise W. Dennery, New Orleans, La., for amicus Washington Legal and Allied Ed.
John L. Maxey, II, Special Counsel, Stephen J. Kirchmayr, Deputy Atty. Gen., Hubbard T. Saunders, IV, Jackson, Miss., for amicus State of Miss.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana.
Before BROWN, JOHNSON, and HIGGINBOTHAM, Circuit Judges.
Plaintiffs, black registered voters in Orleans Parish, Louisiana, raise constitutional challenges to the present system of electing Louisiana Supreme Court Justices from the First Supreme Court District. Plaintiffs allege that the current at-large system of electing Justices from the First District impermissibly dilutes the voting strength of black voters in Orleans Parish in violation of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, as amended in 1982 and the fourteenth and fifteenth amendments. The district court dismissed the section 2 claim pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6) for failure to state a claim, finding that section 2 does not apply to the election of state judges. Concluding that section 2 does so apply, we reverse.
The primary issue before this Court is whether section 2 of the Voting Rights Act applies to state judicial elections.
The facts are undisputed. Currently, the seven Justices on the Supreme Court of Louisiana are elected from six geographical judicial districts. Five of the six districts elect one Justice each. However, the First District, comprised of four parishes (Orleans, St. Bernard, Plaquemines, and Jefferson Parishes), elects two Justices at-large.
The population of the four parish First Supreme Court District is approximately thirty-four percent black and sixty-three percent white. The registered voter population reveals a somewhat similar percentage breakdown, with approximately thirty-two percent black and sixty-eight percent white. Over half of the four parish First Supreme Court District's population and over half of the district's registered voters live in Orleans Parish. Importantly, Orleans Parish has a fifty-five percent black population and a fifty-two percent black registered voter population. Plaintiffs seek a division of the First District into two single-member districts, each to elect one Justice. Under the plaintiffs' plan of division one proposed district would be composed of Orleans Parish with a greater black population and black registered voter population than white. The other proposed district would be composed of Jefferson, Plaquemines, and St. Bernard Parishes; this district would have a substantially greater white population and white registered voter population than black. It is particularly significant that no black person has ever been elected to the Louisiana Supreme Court, either from the First Supreme Court District or from any one of the other five judicial districts.
To support their voter dilution claim, plaintiffs cite, among other factors, a history of purposeful official discrimination on the basis of race in Louisiana and the existence of widespread racially polarized voting in elections involving black and white candidates. Specifically, plaintiffs allege in their complaint:
Because of the offical history of racial discrimination in Louisiana's First Supreme Court District, the wide spread prevalence of racially polarized voting in the district, the continuing effects of past discrimination on the plaintiffs, the small percentage of minorities elected to public office in the area, the absence of any blacks elected to the Louisiana Supreme Court from the First District, and the lack of any justifiable reason to continue the practice of electing two Justices at-large from the New Orleans area only, plaintiffs contend that the current election procedures for selecting Supreme Court Justices from the New Orleans area dilutes minority voting strength and therefore violates the 1965 Voting Rights Act, as amended.
On May 1, 1987, the district court, 659 F.Supp. 183, dismissed plaintiffs' complaint for failure to state a claim upon which relief may be granted. In its opinion accompanying the dismissal order, the district court concluded that section 2 of the Voting Rights Act does not apply to the election of state judges. To support this conclusion, the district court relied primarily on the amended language in section 2 which states "to elect representatives of their choice." The district court reasoned that since judges are not "representatives," judicial elections are therefore not within the protective ambit of section 2. Focusing on a perceived inherent difference between representatives and judges, the district court stated, "[j]udges, by their very definition, do not represent voters but are 'appointed [or elected] to preside and administer the law.' " (citation omitted). The district court further relied on what was understood to be a lack of any reference to judicial elections in the legislative history of section 2, and on previous court decisions establishing that the "one person, one vote" principle does not apply to judicial elections. As to plaintiffs' fourteenth and fifteenth amendment challenges, the district court determined that plaintiffs had failed to plead an intent to discriminate with sufficient specificity to support their constitutional claims. Plaintiffs appeal the district court's dismissal of both their statutory and constitutional claims.
In an opinion just released, the Sixth Circuit, addressing a complaint that the present system of electing municipal judges to the Hamilton County Municipal Court in Ohio violates section 2, concluded that section 2 does indeed apply to the judiciary. Mallory v. Eyrich, 275 F.2d 839, (6th Cir. 1988). Other than our district court, only two district courts have ruled on the coverage of section 2 in this context. The Mallory district court, subsequently reversed, concluded that section 2 does not extend to the judiciary. Mallory v. Eyrich, 666 F.Supp. 1060 (S.D. Ohio 1987). The other district court, Martin v. Allain, 658 F.Supp. 1183 (S.D.Miss. 1987), determined that section 2 does apply to the judicial branch. After consideration of the language of the Act itself; the policies behind the enactment of section 2; pertinent legislative history; previous judicial interpretations of section 5, a companion section to section 2 in the Act; and the position of the United States Attorney General on this issue; we conclude that section 2 does apply to the election of state court judges. We therefore reverse the judgment of the district court.
The Voting Rights Act was enacted by Congress in 1965 for a broad remedial purpose--"to rid the country of racial discrimination in voting." South Carolina v. Katzenbach, 383 U.S. 301, 315, 86 S.Ct. 803, 812, 15 L.Ed.2d 769 (1966). Since the inception of the Act, the Supreme Court has consistently interpreted the Act in a manner which affords it "the broadest possible scope" in combatting racial discrimination. Allen v. State Board of Elections, 393 U.S. 544, 565, 89 S.Ct. 817, 831, 22 L.Ed.2d 1 (1969). As a result, the Act effectively regulates a wide range of voting practices and procedures. See United States v. Sheffield Board of Commissioners, 435 U.S. 110, 122-23, 98 S.Ct. 965, 974-75, 55 L.Ed.2d 148 (1978). Referred to by the Supreme Court as a provision which "broadly prohibits the use of voting rules to abridge exercise of the franchise on racial grounds," Katzenbach, 383 U.S. at 316, 86 S.Ct. at 812, section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, prior to its amendment in 1982, provided as follows:
No voting qualification or prerequisite to voting, or standard, practice, or procedure shall be imposed or applied by any State or political subdivision to deny or abridge the right of any citizen of the United States to vote on account of race or color, or in contravention of the guarantees set forth in section 1973b(f)(2) of this title.
Congress amended section 2 in 1982 in response to the Supreme Court's decision in Mobile v. Bolden, 446 U.S. 55, 100 S.Ct. 1490, 64 L.Ed.2d 47 (1980), wherein the Court concluded that section 2 operated to prohibit only intentional acts of discrimination by state officials. In disagreement with the high court's pronouncement, Congress amended section 2 with language providing that proof of intent is not required to successfully prove a section 2 violation. Instead, Congress adopted the "results" test, whereby plaintiffs may prevail under section 2 by demonstrating that, under the totality of the circumstances, a challenged election law or procedure has the effect of denying or abridging the right to vote on the basis of race. However, while effecting significant change through the 1982 amendments, Congress specifically retained the operative language of original section 2 defining the section's coverage--"[n]o voting qualification or prerequisite to voting or standard, practice, or procedure shall be imposed...." Section 2, as amended in 1982, now provides:
(a) No voting qualification or prerequisite to voting or standard, practice, or procedure shall be imposed or applied...
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