Cromartie v. Hunt

• Decision Date: 07 March 2000
• Docket Number: No. 4:96CV104BO(3).,4:96CV104BO(3).
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of North Carolina
• Parties: Martin CROMARTIE, et al., Plaintiffs, v. James B. HUNT, Jr., in his official capacity as Governor the State of North Carolina, et al., Defendants.

133 F.Supp.2d 407

Martin CROMARTIE, et al., Plaintiffs, v. James B. HUNT, Jr., in his official capacity as Governor the State of North Carolina, et al., Defendants.

No. 4:96CV104BO(3).

United States District Court, E.D. North Carolina. Eastern Division.

March 7, 2000.

Robinson O. Everett, Durham, NC, Martin B. McGee, Williams, Boger, Grady, Davis & Tuttle, Concord, NC, for plaintiffs.

Edwin M. Speas, Jr., N.C. Dept. of Justice, Special Litigation Section, Raleigh, NC, Tiare Bowe Smiley, State Atty. General's Office, Raleigh, NC, for James B. Hunt, Jr., Dennis A. Wicker, Harold J. Brubaker, N.C. State Bd. of Elections, Larry Leake, Dorothy Presser, June K. Youngblood, defendants.

Tiare Bowe Smiley, State Atty. General's Office, Raleigh, NC, for Elaine Marshall, S. Katherine Burnette, Faiger Blackwell, defendants.

Janie Allison Sitton, Attorney, Voting Section, Civil Rights Div., Washington, DC, for U.S., amicus.

Robert Neal Hunter, Jr., Hunter, Johnson, Elam & Benjamin, PLLC, Greensboro, NC, for Cass Ballenger, Howard Coble, Richard Burr, Sue Myrick, Walter Jones, Robin Hayes, Charles Taylor, amicus.

Adam Stein, Ferguson, Stein, Wallas, Adkins, Gresham & Sumter, Chapel Hill, NC, for Alfred Smallwood, David Moore, William M. Hodges, Robert L. Davis, Jr., Jan Valder, Barney Offerman, Virginia Newell, Charles Lambeth, George Simkins, intervenor-defendants.

OPINION

TERRENCE WILLIAM BOYLE, Chief Judge.

This matter is before the Court on remand from the United States Supreme Court's order holding that the underlying case was not suited for summary disposition and ordering this Court to conduct further proceedings. Hunt v. Cromartie, 526 U.S. 541, 119 S.Ct. 1545, 143 L.Ed.2d 731 (1999). The underlying action challenges the congressional redistricting plan enacted by the General Assembly of the State of North Carolina on March 31, 1997, contending that it violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, and relying on the line of cases represented by Shaw v. Hunt, 517 U.S. 899, 116 S.Ct. 1894, 135 L.Ed.2d 207 (1996) ("Shaw II"), and Miller v. Johnson, 515 U.S. 900, 904, 115 S.Ct. 2475, 2482, 132 L.Ed.2d 762 (1995).

Following the Supreme Court's decision to remand, the parties undertook a new round of discovery, ending in October, 1999. Between November 29 and December 1, 1999, a trial was held before this Court.

BACKGROUND

In Shaw II the United States Supreme Court held that the Twelfth Congressional District created by the 1992 Congressional Redistricting Plan (hereinafter, the "1992 Plan") was race-based and could not survive the required "strict scrutiny." 517 U.S. 899, 116 S.Ct. 1894, 135 L.Ed.2d 207. The five plaintiffs in Shaw lacked standing to attack the other majority-minority district (the First Congressional District under the 1992 Plan) because they were not registered voters in the district. Id.

Soon after the Supreme Court ruled in Shaw II, three residents of Tarboro, North Carolina, filed the original Complaint in this action on July 3, 1996. These original Plaintiffs resided in the First Congressional District (alternatively, "District 1") as it existed under North Carolina's 1992 Plan. The Plaintiffs charged that the First Congressional District violated their rights to equal protection under the United States Constitution because race predominated in the drawing of the District. The action was stayed pending resolution of remand proceedings in Shaw v. Hunt, and on July 9, 1996, the same three Tarboro residents joined the Plaintiffs in Shaw in filing an Amended Complaint in that case, similarly challenging District 1.

By Order dated September 12, 1997, the three-judge panel in Shaw approved a congressional redistricting plan enacted on March 31, 1997, by the General Assembly as a remedy for the constitutional violation found by the Supreme Court to exist in the Twelfth Congressional District (alternatively, "District 12"). The Shaw three-judge panel also dismissed without prejudice, as moot, the plaintiffs' claim that the First Congressional District in the 1992 Plan was unconstitutional. Although it was a final order, the September 12, 1997, decision of the Shaw three-judge panel was not preclusive of the instant cause of action, as the panel was not presented with a continuing challenge to the redistricting plan.¹

On October 17, 1997, this Court dissolved the stay previously entered in this matter. On the same day, two of the original three Plaintiffs, along with four residents of District 12, filed an amended Complaint challenging the 1997 remedial congressional redistricting plan (the "1997 Plan"), and seeking a declaration that the First and Twelfth Congressional Districts in the 1997 Plan are unconstitutional racial gerrymanders. A three-judge panel was designated by order of the Chief Judge of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, dated January 23, 1998.

The Plaintiffs moved for a preliminary injunction on January 30, 1998, and for summary judgment on February 5, 1998. Defendants filed for summary judgment on March 2, 1998, and a hearing on these motions was held on March 31, 1998. On April 3, 1998, a majority of the three-judge panel issued an Order and Permanent Injunction finding that the Twelfth Congressional District under the 1997 Plan was unconstitutional and granting Plaintiffs summary judgment as to that district. The Order and Permanent Injunction also granted Plaintiffs' Motion for Preliminary Injunction and granted Plaintiffs' request for a Permanent Injunction, thereby enjoining Defendants from conducting any primary or general election for congressional offices under the 1997 Plan. Finally, the Court ordered the parties to file a written submission addressing an appropriate time period within which the North Carolina General Assembly would be allowed the opportunity to correct the constitutional defects in the 1997 Plan, and to present a proposed election schedule to follow redistricting which provided for a primary election process culminating in a general congressional election to be held on the date of the previously scheduled general election.

Defendants filed a Motion to Stay the April 3 Order, which was denied by this Court on April 6, 1998. On that date, Defendants appealed the denial of their Motion to Stay to the United States Supreme Court, which upheld this Court's denial on April 13, 1998. Hunt v. Cromartie, 523 U.S. 1068, 118 S.Ct. 1510, 140 L.Ed.2d 662 (1998).

On April 14, 1998, this Court issued a Memorandum and Opinion issuing its findings of fact and conclusions of law regarding the April 3, 1998 order and denying Plaintiffs' Motion for Summary Judgment with regard to the First Congressional District under the 1997 Plan. On April 17, 1998, Defendants filed a motion asking the Court to reconsider its April 6 order. On April 21, this Motion to Reconsider was denied.

On April 21, 1998, the Court issued a scheduling order, requiring that the General Assembly either submit a new plan to the Court and the Department of Justice by May 22, 1998 or the Court would assume responsibility for drawing an interim plan. On May 22, 1998, Defendants submitted the 1998 Congressional Redistricting Plain ("the 1998 Plan"). The 1998 Plan contained a clause stating that, in the event that the United States Supreme Court found for the State in its appeal, the 1998 Plan would no longer be ordered and thus North Carolina's congressional districts would revert to the 1997 Plan.

On October 19, 1998, the Court granted a joint motion to stay all proceedings in this action pending a decision by the United States Supreme Court in Hunt v. Cromartie, docketed in the Supreme Court on September 16, 1998 as No. 98-450.

On May 17, 1999 the United States Supreme Court entered an order holding that the underlying case was not suited for summary disposition and ordering this Court to conduct further proceedings. Hunt v. Cromartie, 526 U.S. 541, 119 S.Ct. 1545, 143 L.Ed.2d 731 (1999).

In compliance with the Supreme Court's decision, a three day bench trial was held in this matter, from November 29 to December 1, 1999. Plaintiffs called eight witnesses. Plaintiffs' first witness was Senator Hamilton Horton, a resident of Forsyth County and longtime member of the North Carolina General Assembly. Senator Horton testified as to his belief that Forsyth County and Winston-Salem were split along racial lines in the 1997 Plan and that District 12 was created with a predominantly racial motive.

Plaintiffs' second witness was Representative Steve Wood, a resident of High Point, North Carolina. Representative Wood testified that in 1997 he served in the North Carolina General Assembly in a leadership position. Representative Wood ran for Congress in the Twelfth District under the 1998 Plan and is convinced that the 1997 Plan divided High Point and Guilford County along racial lines for a predominantly racial motive.

As their third witness, Plaintiffs called Representative John Weatherly of King's Mountain, North Carolina, a member of the North Carolina General assembly during the consideration of the 1997 and 1998 redistricting plans who had previously served on a commission considering the State's legislative process. Representative Weatherly testified that he introduced legislation to facilitate the redistricting process through the use of a redistricting commission and that, on the basis of his political and legislative experience, he believed that both Districts 1 and 12 were drawn with a predominantly racial motive.

Plaintiffs' fourth witness was R.O. Everett, a longtime resident of Salisbury, North Carolina who has been active in politics and has run for the state legislature. Mr. Everett testified that he was familiar with the congressional districts in the Salisbury and Rowan County areas and is convinced that District 12 was drawn with a predominantly racial motive.

Plaintiffs' fifth witness was J.H. Froelich Jr., a lifetime resident of High Point, NC who...