LATINO POL. ACTION COMMITTEE v. City of Boston

• Decision Date: 22 May 1985
• Docket Number: Civ. A. No. 83-2472-C.
• Citation: 609 F. Supp. 739
• Parties: LATINO POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE, INC., et al., Plaintiffs, v. CITY OF BOSTON, et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Massachusetts

609 F. Supp. 739

LATINO POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE, INC., et al., Plaintiffs, v. CITY OF BOSTON, et al., Defendants.

Civ. A. No. 83-2472-C.

United States District Court, D. Massachusetts.

May 22, 1985.

Joseph L. Kociubes, Jonathan W. Fitch, Bingham, Dana and Gould, Alan Jay Rom, Lawyers' Comm. for Civil Rights, Boston, Mass., Frank R. Parker, Lawyers' Comm. for Civil Rights, Washington, D.C., for plaintiffs.

City of Boston Law Dept., Steven Perlmutter, Suzanne F. Sheats, Boston, Mass., for City of Boston, Mayor White, Michael Joyce & Boston Election Com'n.

Stephen H. Oleskey, Jane D. Kaplan, Hale and Dorr, Paul F. Saba, Boston, Mass., for Members of Boston City Council.

OPINION

CAFFREY, Chief Judge.

This is a civil action in which plaintiffs challenge the City of Boston's plan for the election of City Council and School Committee members by district. Plaintiffs are four non-profit organizations which seek to increase minority participation and influence in politics, and twelve individuals who are residents and registered voters of Boston. Defendants are the City of Boston; its mayor, Raymond L. Flynn; the Boston Election Committee; and Michael A. Joyce, Commissioner of Elections of Boston and Chairman of the Boston Election Commission. After a bench trial, I find and rule as follows:

Plaintiffs contend that the geographical configuration of the nine electoral districts created by the City's plan impermissably dilutes minority voting strength. The plan allegedly minimizes the political impact of minority votes in three specific ways: it consolidates or "packs" the Black population into only two districts; it divides or "fragments" the Hispanic population among several districts, and it places the racially and ethnically diverse population of Boston's South End in a district which is politically dominated by South Boston, an area whose virtually all White population is reputed to be hostile toward minorities. Plaintiffs assert that, by denying minorities equal access to the political process, the plan violates Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, 42 U.S.C. § 1973, as amended; the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution; and Articles 1 and 9 of the Declaration of Rights of the Massachusetts Constitution.

Size and Location of Boston's Minority Populations

According to the 1980 census, minorities comprise approximately 31.5% of Boston's population. 22.4% of the City's residents are Black, 6.4% are Latino and 2.7% are Asian.¹ Most of Boston's predominantly Black precincts are located in the central part of the city, where they form an oblong running north to south. The City's Latino population is concentrated in several discrete pockets along the southern, eastern and western perimeters of the Black population, while Boston's Asians live primarily in three contiguous precincts located to the Northeast of the other minority concentrations.

History of the Present District Plan

From 1951 until January 1984, Boston's City Council consisted of nine members elected at large, and the School Committee consisted of five members elected at large. In a referendum held on November 3, 1981, Boston's residents voted to adopt a new electoral structure for the two municipal bodies. The new plan provided that the City Council and the School Committee each would be composed of nine members elected on a one-member per district basis, with certain additional members elected at large. The number of at-large members was to be determined according to the City's total population. In December, 1982, the state legislature amended the plan to provide that each body should have exactly four at-large members in addition to the nine members elected by district.

The state legislature also gave the City Council authority to establish the City's nine new electoral districts. In mapping the new districts, the City Council was to be guided by the provisions of M.G.L. c. 43 § 131, which states, in relevant part:

Each such district shall be compact and shall contain, as nearly as may be, an equal number of inhabitants, shall be composed of contiguous existing precincts, and shall be drawn with a view toward preserving the integrity of existing neighborhoods.

In December, 1981, a Special Committee of the City Council was formed to draw the nine district plan. After holding public hearings and analyzing demographic data about the City, the Special Committee constructed a plan which it adopted by ordinance on February 24, 1982. On September 8, 1982, representatives of Boston's minority residents, many of whom are plaintiffs in the present action, filed a lawsuit challenging the legality of that plan. Latino Political Action Committee v. City of Boston, 568 F.Supp. 1012 (D.Mass. 1983) (Latino I). The plaintiffs in that action charged that the district plan violated the constitutionally mandated apportionment standard of "one person, one vote", Gray v. Sanders, 372 U.S. 368, 381, 83 S.Ct. 801, 809, 9 L.Ed.2d 821 (1963), and that it impermissibly diluted minority voting strength. Because this Court thereafter invalidated the plan on the basis of the one person, one vote principle, the Court did not reach the question of vote dilution. 568 F.Supp. 1012.

In response to this Court's order in Latino I, the Special Committee endeavored to design a new district map. To aid it in its task, the Committee held public hearings on August 4 and 10, 1983, at which interested citizens, including representatives of Boston's Black, Hispanic and Asian populations, stated their positions and offered various proposals for new district plans. At the hearings, the Committee was reminded that any plan which minimized the voting power of minority groups would be invalid and would be challenged in court.

On August 10, 1983, the City Council adopted the plan which is now in effect. Under this plan, Black voters control two of the City's nine districts, Districts 4 and 7. Neither the Hispanic nor the Asian population, each of which is less than one-third the size of the Black population, controls any district. Although most of Boston's Asians live in a compact geographical area within District 2, there are sizable Hispanic concentrations located in five of the nine districts. On August 23, 1983, plaintiffs filed the action now before the Court. Despite this legal challenge to the district plan, the plan was used as the basis for the City Council and School Committee elections held in November, 1983. The validity of those election results is not at issue in this case.

Amended Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965

In 1982, Congress amended Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 in response to the Supreme Court's decision in City of Mobile v. Bolden, 446 U.S. 55, 100 S.Ct. 1490, 64 L.Ed.2d 47 (1980). Bolden held that proof of discriminatory intent is not only an essential element of a vote dilution claim brought under the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, but also a necessary part of a claim brought under Section 2. Under the amended Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, discriminatory intent is no longer an essential element in a lawsuit claiming that an election plan violates minority voting rights. Section 2 now states:

(a) No voting qualification or prerequisite to voting or standard, practice, or procedure shall be imposed or applied by any State or political subdivision in a manner which results in a denial or abridgement of 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 1973(f)(2) of this title, as provided in subsection (b) of this section.

(b) A violation of subsection (a) of this section is established if, based on the totality of circumstances, it is shown that the political processes leading to nomination or election in the State or political subdivision are not equally open to participation by members of a class of citizens protected by subsection (a) of this section in that its members have less opportunity than other members of the electorate to participate in the political process and to elect representatives of their choice. The extent to which members of a protected class have been elected to office in the State or political subdivision is one circumstance which may be considered: Provided, That nothing in this section establishes a right to have members of a protected class elected in numbers equal to their proportion in the population.

42 U.S.C. § 1973, as amended June 29, 1982.

The legislative history of the 1982 Amendment explains that, in evaluating the "totality of circumstances" under which a particular electoral mechanism operates, a court should be guided by the analytical framework established in the pre-Bolden cases of White v. Regester, 412 U.S. 755, 93 S.Ct. 2332, 37 L.Ed.2d 314 (1973), and Zimmer v. McKeithen, 485 F.2d 1297 (5th Cir.1973). The legislative history also sets forth a list of typical factors, derived from these two cases, which bear upon the issue of vote dilution. These factors include:

1. the extent of any history of official discrimination in the state or political subdivision that touched the right of the members of the minority group to register, to vote, or otherwise to participate in the democratic process;

2. the extent to which voting in the elections of the state or political subdivision is racially polarized;

3. the extent to which the state or political subdivision has used unusually large election districts, majority vote requirements, anti-single shot provisions, or other voting practices or procedures that may enhance the opportunity for discrimination against the minority group;

4. if there is a candidate slating process, whether the members of the minority group have been denied access to that process;

5. the extent to which members of the minority group in the state or political subdivision bear the effects of discrimination in such areas as education,

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