Dillard v. BALDWIN COUNTY COM'N

• Decision Date: 19 April 2002
• Citation: 833 So.2d 11
• Parties: John DILLARD et al. v. BALDWIN COUNTY COMMISSION.
• Court: Alabama Supreme Court

833 So.2d 11

John DILLARD et al. v. BALDWIN COUNTY COMMISSION.

1001971.

Supreme Court of Alabama.

April 19, 2002.

James U. Blacksher, Birmingham, for plaintiffs John Dillard et al. and plaintiffs-intervenors Billy Smith et al.

Albert L. Jordan and Algert S. Agricola, Jr., of Wallace, Jordan, Ratliff & Brandt, L.L.C., Birmingham, for plaintiffs-intervenors Dale Eugene Brown, George R. Johnson, James Austin, Jr., and Alvin Lee Pitts.

Patrick H. Sims of Cabaniss, Johnston, Gardner, Dumas & O'Neal, Mobile, for defendants Baldwin County Commission and its members.

Bill Pryor, atty. gen., and John J. Park, Jr., asst. atty. gen., for defendant Adrian Johns.

WOODALL, Justice.

This case is before this Court on two certified questions from the United States District Court for the Middle District of Alabama, where it is on remand from the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. See Dillard v. Baldwin County Comm'rs, 225 F.3d 1271, 1283 (2000). The "long and protracted history" of this litigation is fully set forth in Dillard, 225 F.3d at 1274. See also Dillard v. Baldwin County Bd. of Educ., 686 F.Supp. 1459 (M.D.Ala.1988); Dillard v. Baldwin County Comm'n, 694 F.Supp. 836 (M.D.Ala.), amended by, 701 F.Supp. 808 (M.D.Ala.), aff'd, 862 F.2d 878 (11th Cir. 1988).

This litigation began in 1986, when "John Dillard and other African American voters [`the Dillard plaintiffs'] brought suit against the Baldwin County Commission alleging that the at-large system used to elect its members violated section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, as amended, 42 U.S.C. § 1973." Dillard, 225 F.3d at 1274. "The case was one among many Dillard suits in the district courts which challenged the at-large election systems used by dozens of cities, counties, and school boards across Alabama." Id.¹

In 1986, the Baldwin County Commission ("the Commission") "was composed of four persons elected at-large, one from each of four numbered districts." 225 F.3d at 1274. The authority for that system of government for Baldwin County was Act No. 239, 1931 Ala. Local Acts 100, which "created ... a Commission form of government for [Baldwin] County to consist of a Commission of four members." Id. Act No. 239 not only defined the number of commissioners, but set the boundaries of the districts in which the commissioners were to reside. Id. The Legislature amended Act No. 239 in 1973, and again in 1975, to redefine the four districts. See Act No. 151, 1973 Ala. Acts 188, and Act No. 841, 1975 Ala. Acts 1681.

The Commission "conceded liability and the district court ordered relief." 225 F.3d at 1274. Specifically, the district court ordered the Commission "to increase its membership from four to seven persons elected from single-member districts in order to ensure a majority-black voting district." Id.

In 1996, Dale Eugene Brown, George R. Johnson, James Austin, Jr., and Alvin Lee Pitts filed a complaint in intervention as plaintiffs (hereinafter collectively referred to as "the Brown intervenors"), challenging the district court's remedy order. Id. Specifically, the Brown intervenors "alleged that by increasing the size of the Commission from four to seven members in order to create a majority-black district, the district court `exceede[d] its authority granted by Congress in the Voting Rights Act, and violate[d] the Tenth and Eleventh Amendments.'" 225 F.3d at 1274. They did not challenge the remedy order insofar as it abolished the system of "at-large election[s]." Id.

The district court dismissed the Brown intervenors' complaint, on the ground that it "failed to state a claim upon which relief can be granted." 225 F.3d at 1274-75. More specifically, it held that "[the Brown intervenors] failed to state a claim under the Tenth and Eleventh Amendments because the rights deprivation they alleged was the result of state rather than federal authority." Id. at 1275. The district court apparently reasoned "that because a federal court injunction [was] being implemented and imposed by a state body—here the Baldwin County Commission—the activity being challenged necessarily [became] state activity and state activity alone." Id. at 1281. It further concluded that the Brown intervenors had not alleged "that the 1988 injunction resulted in vote discrimination on account of race," and, on that basis, held that their Voting Rights Act claim was defective. 225 F.3d at 1275. The Brown intervenors appealed.

The United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit reversed the district court's judgment. That court held that the Brown intervenors had stated a claim, both under section 2 of the Voting Rights Act and under the Tenth and Eleventh Amendments. Regarding the Voting Rights Act claim, the court stated:

"[U]nder the Supreme Court's holding in Holder [v. Hall, 512 U.S. 874, 114 S.Ct. 2581, 129 L.Ed.2d 687 (1994)], `federal courts may not mandate as a [section 2] remedy that a state or political subdivision alter the size of its elected bodies.' [Nipper v. Smith, 39 F.3d 1494, 1532 (11th Cir.1994).]. ... By alleging that they are being subjected to, and their voting power is being affected by, an illegal election scheme that was plainly created because of or on account of race, the Intervenors have adequately stated a claim for a section 2 violation of the Voting Rights Act."

225 F.3d at 1281.

Regarding the Brown intervenors' claims under the Tenth and Eleventh Amendments, the court stated: "We cannot shield federal court orders from constitutional challenge simply because the federal court's orders are being implemented by local officials." 225 F.3d at 1282. It explained: "Activity performed pursuant to a federal court order is not transformed into the exclusive exercise of state power simply because it is performed by state actors who are obeying a federal court injunction." Id. at 1281.

However, the court declined to modify the 1988 injunction "to provide for four single-member districts rather than seven," as the Brown intervenors requested. 225 F.3d at 1282. Instead, it remanded the cause to consider whether changing the size of the Commission "might have been appropriate to remedy a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment." 225 F.3d at 1282.

After the Brown intervenors joined the litigation, Billy R. Smith, Joe M. Horace, and Willie E. Edwards (hereinafter collectively referred to as "the Smith intervenors") intervened to oppose the modification urged by the Brown intervenors. On April 11, 2001, following the remand of the cause, the Dillard plaintiffs and the Smith intervenors filed in the district court a "Motion for Determination of Partially Dispositive State Law Issue." The motion alleged that legislation enacted while the litigation was pending, coupled with a resolution passed by the Commission on August 17, 1999, had "caused the seven-member Baldwin County Commission to become fully constituted under Alabama law." They alluded specifically to Act No. 92-1, § 1, 1992 Ala. Acts 3, codified at Ala. Code 1975, § 11-3-1.1(a), which provides: "Following the release of any federal decennial census, any county commission of this state which is at that time electing its members from single-member districts, pursuant to either state or local law or a court order, may, by resolution, alter the boundaries of the districts." They also referred to Resolution No. 99-76, passed by the Baldwin County Commission, which provides, in pertinent part:

"WHEREAS, Title 11, Chapter 3, Article 1.1 of the Code of Alabama 1975 (`Code'), authorizes the County Commission to alter, revise and change the single-member County Commission district arrangement only after such alterations, revisions and changes have been provided by a display of a map delineating the proposed alterations ... and

". . . .

"WHEREAS, in compliance with the judgment and orders of the United States District Court for the Middle District of Alabama, Northern Division, Civil Action No. 87-T-1159-N, the County Commission hereby continues the implementation of the seven-member County Commission district arrangement; now therefore

"BE IT RESOLVED BY THE COUNTY COMMISSION, IN REGULAR SESSION ASSEMBLED, ... that we hereby alter, revise and change the seven single-member district arrangement for the County Commission of Baldwin County, Alabama...."

The motion filed by the Dillard plaintiffs and the Smith intervenors stated: "The remand issue, regarding the remedial authority of [the district] court to set the number of seats on the Baldwin County Commission at seven, would be moot if the current seven-member structure is now authorized by state law." The Dillard plaintiffs and the Smith intervenors sought an order certifying to this Court questions regarding the effect of § 11-3-1.1, and Resolution No. 99-76. The Brown intervenors filed a response opposing the certification.

In an order entered May 8, 2001, the district court denied the motion, stating that "it would be far too much of a stretch to reach [the conclusion urged by the Dillard plaintiffs and the Smith intervenors]." However, on July 25, 2001, the Dillard plaintiffs and the Smith intervenors moved for reconsideration of the order denying their motion for certification, stating: "Events occurring since the May 8 order... warrant its reconsideration and make more compelling the need for clarification by the Supreme Court of Alabama of legislative intent expressed in Ala.Code § 11-3-1.1." In particular, they presented the affidavit of the "sole sponsor of Act 92-1," State Senator Henry ("Hank") Sanders, who expressed his view of the legislative "intent" of § 11-3-1.1. In conjunction with the Sanders affidavit, they cited Siegelman v. Alabama Association of School Boards, 819 So.2d 568 (Ala.2001), for the proposition that this Court has "credited the representations of a committee of the Legislature regarding the legislative intent of Ala. Code [1975,] § 16-6B-9."

In response, the district court vacated its May 8,...