Allen v. Waller Cnty.
| Decision Date | 15 July 2020 |
| Docket Number | Civil Action No. 4:18-cv-03985 |
| Citation | 472 F.Supp.3d 351 |
| Parties | Jayla ALLEN, et al., Plaintiffs, v. WALLER COUNTY, TEXAS, et al., Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Southern District of Texas |
Catherine Meza, NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, Inc., Washington, DC, Deuel Ross, Kristen A. Johnson, Steven C. Lance, John S. Cusick, Leah Aden, NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., New York, NY, Julie Goodrich Harrison, Norton Rose Fulbright US LLP, Houston, TX, for Plaintiffs Damon Johnson, Treasure Smith.
Steven C. Lance, Leah Aden, NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., New York, NY, Julie Goodrich Harrison, Norton Rose Fulbright US LLP, Houston, TX, for Plaintiff The Panther Party.
Elizabeth Anne Dorsey, Elton R. Mathis, Waller County Criminal District Attorney's Office, Hempstead, TX, Gunnar Peterson Seaquist, Bickerstaff Heath Delgado Acosta LLP, Austin, TX, for Defendants.
MEMORANDUM AND ORDER DENYING MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT
Waller County assigned fewer hours of early voting in the October 2018 election to PVAMU than those received by some other areas in the County. Plaintiffs assert that this violated their rights under the Fourteenth, Fifteenth, and Twenty-Sixth Amendments of the United States Constitution and the Voting Rights Act.
Defendants are Waller County and several of its county officials and entities. They have moved for summary judgment after the conclusion of discovery, generally asserting that no discriminatory intent or effect underlay decisions as to early-voting locations and times. Dkt 73.
The Court heard extensive oral argument on the motion and found disputes of material fact to exist. This Memorandum and Order further sets forth the reasons for denial of summary judgment at the conclusion of the hearing.
The following presents a general description of this case. This summary in no way constitutes findings of fact or in any way constrains the ability of all parties to fully develop the factual record at trial.
Plaintiffs include both individuals and an entity. The individuals are Jayla Allen, Damon Johnson, and Treasure Smith. They are Black students at PVAMU, registered voters, and residents in Waller County. The entity is the Panther Party. It is a student and alumni organization at PVAMU dedicated to addressing and improving the social, political, economic, and historical landscape at PVAMU and the City of Prairie View.
Defendants also include both individuals and entities. The entities are Waller County, Texas, and its governing body of the Waller County Commissioners Court. The individuals are Christy Eason and Carbett Duhon in their respective official capacities as the Waller County Elections Administrator and Waller County Judge.
Waller County abuts the northwest border of Harris County, roughly fifty miles from Houston. PVAMU is the only university in the County. It is a historically Black university of around 8,000 students. Eighty percent of the students are Black. This corresponds to the demographics of the City of Prairie View, where eighty percent of the voting-age population is Black and fifty-four percent are aged eighteen to twenty. This stands in contrast with the population of the County as a whole, where fifty-two percent are White and fourteen percent are aged eighteen to twenty. Dkt 77-1 Ex 2 at 77 (expert report of Henry Flores, Ph.D.). Numerous other statistical and demographic comparisons are set out in the amended complaint. See Dkt 49 at ¶¶ 23–33.
PVAMU students disproportionately engage in early voting. The voting results published by Waller County for the March 2018 primary indicate that sixty-four percent of PVAMU students voted early as compared to forty-three percent countywide.
The City of Prairie View has no public transportation. The individual Plaintiffs and many PVAMU students don't own cars. Plaintiffs argue that this makes travel throughout Waller County uniquely difficult for PVAMU students. PVAMU does have a shuttle. It stops at the on-campus Memorial Student Center at PVAMU. But it doesn't appear to go to the Waller County Community Center a short distance off campus. Dkt 73-2 at 420 (PVAMU campus map); Dkt 77 at 7, 11.
The two main political parties active in Waller County are the Democratic and Republican parties. Eason consulted with the local chairs of both parties in planning for the 2018 election in her role as the County Elections Administrator. She created a plan of early voting and presented it to the local chairs for consideration, both of whom ultimately approved it after changes. Dkt 73-2 Ex 1 at 87:23–88:05 (deposition of Eason). Neither Eason nor the party chairs consulted any student or administrator representative from PVAMU. Dkt 77-1 Ex 2 (expert report of Henry Flores).
The initial proposal was for early voting to take place at the PVAMU Memorial Student Center from Wednesday to Friday, October 24th through 26th, with additional voting at the Waller County Community Center the following Monday and Tuesday, October 29th and 30th. The Democratic Party chair requested this be changed to avoid any conflicts with homecoming celebrations at PVAMU. Eason then revised the early-voting plan to move all early voting at PVAMU from the first to the second week. Id. at 164:20–165:9.
The Commissioners Court adopted this revised voting plan on September 5, 2018. Dkt 73-2 at 547. The amended complaint includes a chart of the early-voting plan as posted to the Waller County website. Dkt 49 at 12. It is attached here as Appendix A and indicates the early-voting locations and times at what are the five largest communities in Waller County—including Brookshire, Hempstead, Katy, and Waller, in addition to the City of Prairie View. This plan made Prairie View the only one of these with no early voting during the first week. As points of comparison, Katy had early-voting only in the first and not the second week. Brookshire, Hempstead, and Waller had early-voting days available in both the first and second weeks, although some of the locations varied. Many smaller towns had no designated early-voting locations at all.
Concern also arose that Prairie View had fewer early-voting hours than the other large communities in Waller County. The Commissioners Court held a public meeting on October 17, 2018 to address possible changes. Eason recommended adding additional hours at PVAMU and the Prairie View City Hall. This would have included a new on-campus location at the University Square. Disagreement abounded. One commissioner worried that the number of different polling stations open in the Prairie View area on different days over the two-week period would be confusing to voters. The commissioner representing the precinct including Prairie View expressed concern that area residents who weren't students may not wish to vote on campus, and so the additional proposed voting hours would be unfair to them. Another pointed out that smaller communities such as Hockley and Pattinson had no early voting at all. And another supported simply deferring to the political party chairs who had already weighed in.
The Commissioners Court ultimately made no changes to the voting plan. See Dkt 73 at 10–11, citing Dkt 73-2 Ex 9 (). Plaintiffs filed suit five days later—on October 22, 2018, the date on which early voting began. The Commissioners Court in response met two days later in emergency session on October 24, 2018. Dkt 73-2 at 552. It adopted and implemented additional early-voting hours for the City of Prairie View. This included expanded voting hours from 7:00 am to 7:00 pm on the days already designated at the PVAMU Memorial Student Center during the second week. And it included voting at the additional location of Prairie View City Hall between noon and 5:00 pm on Sunday, October 28th. Id. at 11–12, citing Dkt 73-2 Ex 9 (); see also Dkt 73-2 Ex 3 (deposition transcript of Jayla Allen).
Plaintiffs argue that PVAMU students still received no on-campus voting opportunities during the first week, no on-campus weekend hours, and no additional on-campus early-voting days during the second week. They allege that this establishes a discriminatory effect under the Voting Rights Act, intentional discrimination under the Voting Rights Act and under the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, and intentional discrimination under the Twenty-Sixth Amendment. They also assert a hybrid claim under the Fourteenth, Fifteenth, and Twenty-Sixth Amendments specific to Black students aged eighteen to twenty. Dkt 49 at 27.
Defendants moved for summary judgment in January 2020. Dkt 73. Hearing was delayed due to the intervening COVID-19 pandemic. The Court heard extensive argument by videoconference on June 5, 2020. The motion was denied at conclusion of the hearing upon finding that disputes of material fact do exist. The Court directed the parties to begin preparing for trial and advised that this Memorandum and Order would follow to set out the Court's reasoning as an aid to trial preparations.
Rule 56(a) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure requires a court to enter summary judgment when "the movant shows that there is no genuine dispute as to any material fact and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law." See Trent v. Wade , 776 F.3d 368, 376 (5th Cir. 2015). The Fifth Circuit holds that a fact is material "if its resolution in favor of one party might affect the outcome of the lawsuit under governing law." Sossamon v. Lone Star State of Texas , 560 F.3d 316, 326 (5th Cir. 2009) (quotations omitted). And the Fifth Circuit holds that a genuine dispute of material fact exists "when the ‘evidence is such that a reasonable jury could return a verdict for the nonmoving party.’ " Nola Spice Designs LLC v. Haydel...
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Johnson v. Waller Cnty.
...intent or effect underlay decisions as to early voting locations and times. That motion was denied. See Allen v. Waller County , 472 F. Supp. 3d 351 (S.D. Tex. 2020). The case then proceeded to bench trial, to which these findings of fact and conclusions of law now relate.Waller County—or m......