Clay v. Board of Educ. of City of St. Louis

• Decision Date: 09 August 1995
• Docket Number: No. 91-636C(8).,91-636C(8).
• Citation: 896 F. Supp. 929
• Parties: William L. CLAY, John F. Bass, and Louis H. Ford, Plaintiffs, v. The BOARD OF EDUCATION OF the CITY OF ST. LOUIS, Penelope Alcott, Thomas S. Bugel, Louis P. Fister, Nancy L. Hagen, Earl P. Holt, III, Shirley Walker Kiel, John P. Mahoney, Gwen Moore, Earl E. Nance, Jr., Marjorie R. Smith, and Joyce M. Thomas, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Missouri

896 F. Supp. 929

William L. CLAY, John F. Bass, and Louis H. Ford, Plaintiffs, v. The BOARD OF EDUCATION OF the CITY OF ST. LOUIS, Penelope Alcott, Thomas S. Bugel, Louis P. Fister, Nancy L. Hagen, Earl P. Holt, III, Shirley Walker Kiel, John P. Mahoney, Gwen Moore, Earl E. Nance, Jr., Marjorie R. Smith, and Joyce M. Thomas,¹ Defendants.

No. 91-636C(8).

United States District Court, E.D. Missouri, Eastern Division.

August 9, 1995.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Leo V. Garvin, Jr., St. Louis, MO, for plaintiffs.

Kenneth C. Broston, St. Louis, MO, for defendants.

MEMORANDUM OPINION

STOHR, District Judge.

Plaintiffs initiated this action on April 1, 1991, alleging that the at-large election system used to elect members of the Board of Education of the City of St. Louis (the "Board") violates Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, 42 U.S.C. § 1973, and the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution, by effectively denying African-American minority voters in the City of St. Louis an equal opportunity to participate in the political process and to elect representatives of their choice to the Board. Plaintiffs seek declaratory relief and an injunction requiring that "districts be fairly drawn for each of the twelve positions on the Board of Education for the City of St. Louis." Complaint, p. 7. Notice of this action was served upon the Missouri Attorney General in 1991 to enable him to be heard in defense of the at-large voting system. He chose not to join in the litigation.

After being assigned to two other judges and after various requests from both parties for continuances, the matter was tried before the Court, sitting without a jury, on April 10, 1995. After consideration of the testimony adduced at trial, the exhibits introduced into evidence, the briefs of the parties, and the applicable law, the Court makes the following findings of fact and conclusions of law.

I. FINDINGS OF FACT

1. Plaintiffs William L. Clay, Jr. and Louis H. Ford are African-American citizens of the United States and registered voters residing within the City of St. Louis, State of Missouri. Plaintiff John F. Bass is an African-American citizen of the United States currently residing in the District of Columbia but registered to vote in the City of St. Louis.

2. Defendant Board of Education of the City of St. Louis (the "Board") is a metropolitan school district organized pursuant to R.S.Mo. § 162.571 et seq.

3. The Board is comprised of twelve members elected from the City at-large on a general ticket.

4. The at-large electoral system is provided for by R.S.Mo. § 162.581.1, thus the Missouri State Legislature, not the Board, possesses the authority to change the manner in which the Board's members are elected.

5. Four Board members are elected at each municipal general election held on the first Tuesday in April of each odd-numbered year. The winners in each election are the four receiving the most number of votes. Such an election procedure in which the winners are those receiving the most votes, without regard to the fact that none of those candidates may have received a majority of the votes cast, is referred to as a plurality vote method. The members are elected to six year terms.

6. Because four members are elected every two years, voters have the option of "bullet voting," in which a voter casts fewer than all four votes which he or she is permitted to cast, in an effort to enhance the significance of the vote(s) he or she does cast. Rarely do voters in a Board election cast all four of their votes.

7. Any vacancy which might occur on the Board is filled by appointment of the Mayor of the City of St. Louis, and those appointed serve until the next biennial general election.

8. The Board is presently comprised of Dr. John P. Mahoney, Eddie G. Davis, Rev. Earl E. Nance, Jr., James F. Metzler, R. William Purdy, Pauline V. Smith, Robbyn G. Stewart, Thomas M. Nolan, Dr. Albert E. Bender, Sr., Hattie R. Jackson, Renni Shuter, Madye Whitehead and Marybeth McBryan.

9. Davis, Nance, Smith, Jackson and Whitehead are African-Americans. The remaining seven members are white.

10. The St. Louis School District was established in 1833. From that time until 1887, members were elected to the Board in partisan elections from districts. Two members were elected from each Ward of the City. Candidates were selected at Ward primary meetings.

11. In 1887, the Circuit Court of the City of St. Louis divided the City into fourteen school board election districts, each composed of two contiguous Wards. Each of the new districts was allowed one representative on the newly formed Board. In addition to the fourteen district members, the Court provided for seven additional members who ran for election at-large.

12. In 1889, the Missouri General Assembly enacted legislation providing for the election of school directors in cities of 500,000 or more persons. That process remains in effect today.

13. The General Assembly changed the size of the Board to its present size of twelve members in 1897, and further provided that all members be elected at-large. This system of electing members to the Board has continued in essentially the same form until the present time, with only minor changes relating to reductions in the minimum age requirement for members.

14. The "All City Slate" was formed as a non-partisan slating group for Board elections in 1989. A "slating group" is a group of individuals who select candidates to run as a bloc to fill seats which are currently up for election. The 1989 slating group was comprised of Dorothy Springer, Eddie Davis, John Mahoney, Rev. Earl Nance, Jr. and Gwendolyn Moore. Davis, Nance and Moore are African-Americans. The other two members of the group are white.

15. In 1991, a non-partisan slating group, called the "Alliance for Quality Education," also known as "Neighbors 4 Candidates 4 Kids," was formed. Samuel Hays, III and Ronald Thompson were the co-chairmen. The other members were Franke Freeman, Emory Kesteloot, Sister Marie Charles, James Metzler, Jamala Rogers, Mary Franklin, Al Kerth, Jim Buford, Rev. Samuel Hylton, Ann Auer, Ronald Smith, Jamie Rivers and Roberta Smith. Thompson, Freeman, Rogers, Franklin, Buford, Hylton and Ronald Smith are African-Americans. The remaining members of the group are white.

16. In 1993, a non-partisan slating group, identified as "Citizens Advocating Responsibility in Education" was formed. This slating group included Rev. Samuel Hylton, William Purdy, Father William Chapman, Dan Kirner, Rev. Rick Lay, James Metzler, Robbyn Stewart, Paula Smith and Eddie Davis. Hylton, Smith and Davis are African-Americans.

17. The 1990 U.S. Census reported the total population of the City of St. Louis to be 396,685. The population is reported as 50.9% white; 47.5% African-American; and 1.6% Other.

18. The City of St. Louis is comprised of twenty-eight political wards. Each ward consists of several precincts, as determined by the Board of Aldermen of the City of St. Louis.

19. Approximately 73.6% of the City of St. Louis' African-American population is concentrated on the City's "north side" in eleven "African-American Wards," Wards 1, 3, 4, 5, 18-22, 26 and 27. The "African-American Wards" have long had an African-American populations of more than 95%.

20. The majority of the white population in the City of St. Louis, 93%, is concentrated in the eleven historically "White Wards," Wards 9-16 and 23-25, which are located on the City's "south side." The "White Wards" have long had white populations of more than 90%.

21. There are also six "mixed wards" within the City's boundaries. Approximately 89,979 people reside in these mixed wards. The population in the mixed wards is 49.74% white, 47.77% African-American, and 2.49% other.

22. African-Americans comprise 42.7% of the voting age (18 years and older) population within the City.

23. For the 1993-1994 school year, student enrollment in the public school district was 78.9% African-American, 19.3% white, and 1.7% other.

24. The City of St. Louis is governed by a Board of Aldermen. There are twenty-eight aldermen, one from each Ward in the City. Eleven of the twenty-eight aldermen, or 39%, are African-Americans, representing Wards on the City's north side.

25. African-Americans hold seven of the City's fifteen seats, or 46%, in the Missouri House of Representatives; and two of the four State Senators from the City are African-Americans.

26. One of the City's two representatives in the United States House of Representatives is an African-American, and two of the most important City offices, the Mayor's Office and the Office of the Comptroller, are held by African-Americans.

27. The School Board is the only multi-member public office in the City of St. Louis which is elected at large.

28. Prior to the commencement of this action, the Missouri General Assembly adopted legislation which provided for the election of School Board members by district. However, the Governor vetoed the bill on July 11, 1991.

29. The preferred candidate of the minority group is not necessarily an African-American.

30. Defendant's expert, Ronald E. Weber, is the Wilder Crane Professor of Government at the University of Wisconsin. Dr. Weber has consulted and/or offered expert testimony in approximately twenty-five cases involving the Act. For purposes of his analysis in this case, Dr. Weber relied on precinct level data.

31. Dr. Weber performed a bivariate ecological regression analysis ("BERA"). A BERA treats the percentage of the total vote won by each candidate in a given precinct as a dependent variable and the percentage of the precinct's voting age population which is African-American or white as the independent variable. This method of analysis is commonly referred to as a double regression analysis, because two regressions are performed. One regression is performed with the percentage of voting age population who are...