Major v. Treen

• Decision Date: 23 September 1983
• Docket Number: Civ. A. No. 82-1192.
• Citation: 574 F. Supp. 325
• Parties: Barbara MAJOR, et al., Plaintiffs, v. David C. TREEN, etc., et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Louisiana

574 F. Supp. 325

Barbara MAJOR, et al., Plaintiffs, v. David C. TREEN, etc., et al., Defendants.

Civ. A. No. 82-1192.

United States District Court, E.D. Louisiana.

September 23, 1983.

R. James Kellogg, William I. Quigley, Lani Guinier, Stanley A. Halpin, Steven Scheckman, New Orleans, La., Jack Greenberg, New York City, for plaintiffs.

Martin L. C. Feldman, New Orleans, La., David R. Paynter, Baton Rouge, La., for defendant Treen.

William Guste, Jr., Ronald C. Davis, Robert Kutcher, New Orleans, La., Kenneth C. Dejean, Baton Rouge, La., for other defendants.

Before POLITZ, Circuit Judge, and CASSIBRY and COLLINS, District Judges.

MEMORANDUM OPINION

POLITZ, Circuit Judge:

Individually and on behalf of all black persons residing and registered to vote in Louisiana, plaintiffs Barbara Major, Michael Darnell, Bernadine St. Cyr, Brenda Quant and Annie A. Smart brought suit under the Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution, the Civil Rights Act of 1871, 42 U.S.C. § 1983, § 2 of the Voting Rights Act, as amended, 42 U.S.C. § 1973, and 28 U.S.C. §§ 2201 and 2202, seeking declaratory and injunctive relief restraining use of the recent realignment of the state's congressional districts, Act 20 of the 1981 First Extraordinary Session of the Louisiana Legislature. Jurisdiction is based on 28 U.S.C. §§ 1331 and 1343, and 42 U.S.C. § 1973j. The gravamen of plaintiffs' claims is that Act 20 was designed and has the effect of cancelling, minimizing or diluting minority voting strength by dispersing a black population majority in Orleans Parish into two congressional districts. The question posited is whether legislation dividing a highly concentrated black population existing in one geographic and political unit, a parish, into two districts, rather than placing them in a single district in which blacks would constitute a majority, deprives Louisiana's black voters of the right to effective participation in the electoral process.

Facts and Procedural History

In November 1981, Act 20 of the Louisiana Legislature's First Extraordinary Session of 1981 apportioned the state into eight single-member congressional districts. Act 1 of that session established new state representative districts. Both enactments were submitted to the Attorney General of the United States for preclearance under § 5 of the Voting Rights Act, 42 U.S.C. § 1973c.¹ Prior to action by the Attorney General, plaintiffs filed the instant suit attacking both plans on statutory and constitutional grounds. The case was assigned to the docket of Judge Robert F. Collins. On June 1, 1982, the Justice Department interposed a § 5 objection to Act 1, rendering that legislation unenforceable. 42 U.S.C. § 1973c.

Judge Collins denied as moot plaintiffs' motion to consolidate their complaint with one filed by a prospective congressional candidate which was later dismissed for want of a justiciable case or controversy. Robert E. Couhig, Jr. v. James L. Brown, Secretary of State, 538 F.Supp. 1086 (E.D. La.). Defendants' motion seeking a separate trial of the claims of malapportionment of congressional and state representative districts was granted. Acting on plaintiffs' uncontested motion for partial summary judgment, Judge Collins declared the 1976 congressional districting plan, Act 697 of the 1976 Louisiana Legislature, unconstitutional because of large population variances among districts when viewed in light of data developed in the 1980 census.

This three-judge court was designated by Chief Judge Charles Clark of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals on June 10, 1982. On June 18, 1982, Act 20 was precleared by the Attorney General. After Act 1, as subsequently modified by the Louisiana Legislature, was approved by the Attorney General, plaintiffs amended their complaint to withdraw their challenge to the reapportionment of the Louisiana House of Representatives. In addition, plaintiffs amended their complaint to assert a cause of action under the 1982 amendments to § 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, 42 U.S.C. § 1973.

By order dated March 7, 1983, this court reaffirmed Judge Collins' invalidation of Act 697. We granted plaintiffs' motion for class certification pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 23(b)(2), designating a class of persons consisting of all black registered voters residing in the State of Louisiana. Finally, we determined that 28 U.S.C. § 2284(a) vested in this court jurisdiction to entertain plaintiffs' statutory and constitutional claims. Trial was held from March 7 through March 10, 1983. Decision was deferred pending briefing and oral argument. Having considered the evidence adduced at trial, together with the pleadings, briefs, and oral argument of counsel, the court enters the following findings of fact and conclusions of law in conformity with Fed.R. Civ.P. 52(a).

Findings of Fact

Every ten years a reapportionment² of existing congressional districts is compelled by Article I, § 2 of the United States Constitution and by Article 3, § 1 of the Louisiana Constitution of 1974. In 1972, Louisiana's eight congressional districts were realigned based on data developed in the 1970 census. At that time the ideal district population was 455,580 persons. While the state remains entitled to eight representatives following the 1980 census, the ideal district population has increased to 525,497 persons.³

The issue before us principally involves the New Orleans metropolitan area, which encompasses the parishes of Orleans, Jefferson, St. Tammany, Plaquemines and St. Bernard. The 1980 census figures reveal pronounced demographic changes in this area.

During the decade of the 1970s, Orleans Parish (coterminous with the City of New Orleans) experienced a marked change and a slight decline in population.⁴ While overall population declined, the black population increased. The city/parish now has a black population of 308,039 persons, which constitutes 55% of the total population, 48.93% of the voting age population, and 44.89% of the registered voters. With the exception of affluent white neighborhoods located in the city's Garden District and French Quarter, along the lakefront, and near Tulane and Loyola Universities, the black populace is largely concentrated in one contiguous expanse of the inner city.

By contrast, the predominantly white, suburban parishes of Jefferson and St. Tammany, which flank the central city, have undergone explosive population growth.⁵ According to the 1980 census, Jefferson Parish, with a 13.9% black population, a 13.75% black voting age population, and a 10.45% black voter registration, is nearly 87% the size of the ideal congressional district. Unlike Orleans Parish, Jefferson Parish's black population is diffused throughout the parish. Prior to the recent demographic shifts, New Orleans had enough people to form the dominant majority in two congressional districts. Now only 1.06 times the size of the ideal district, as defined by the 1980 census, New Orleans' traditional dominance of two congressional districts is no longer supported by its population.

Under the 1972 redistricting plan, the First Congressional District, presently represented by Robert Livingston, encompassed St. Bernard, Plaquemines and St. Tammany Parishes, together with the lakefront, eastern Mid-City, Algiers and New Orleans east sections of Orleans Parish. An overlay of the 1980 census data to that district, as configured under the 1972 plan, reflects a 36.5% black population and 28.4% black voter registration. The Second Congressional District, presently represented by Lindy Boggs, covers those portions of Jefferson Parish to the south (West Bank) and immediately north (East Bank) of the Mississippi River, as well as New Orleans' central business district, French Quarter, Uptown or Garden District and western Mid-City, all situated within the boundaries of Orleans Parish. Application of the 1980 census data to the 1972 boundaries of the Second District shows that 49.7% of the population and 34% of the registered voters are black. See Exhibit "A" attached.

Legislative History of Act 20

Early in 1981, members of the Louisiana House and Senate research staffs were instructed to collate the 1980 population data compiled by the United States Bureau of the Census, and to ascertain the extent of malapportionment, if any, under the 1972 plan. With the assistance of the Louisiana State University's Division of Research Services, House and Senate research staffs converted the data thus obtained from a census tract to a political subdivision, or precinct, basis. These validated data, referred to as the Weber data, included population and voter registration figures, and provided the exclusive data base for congressional redistricting in both houses.

Recognizing the need for realignment of the state's congressional districts, the legislature established the Louisiana House and Senate Joint Congressional Reapportionment Committee. In July, at the close of the regular 1981 session, each house appointed legislators to ad hoc congressional reapportionment subcommittees functioning under the jurisdiction of two standing committees, the Senate Committee on Senate and Governmental Affairs and the House Committee on House and Governmental Affairs. Senator Thomas H. Hudson chaired the Senate Congressional Reapportionment Subcommittee; Representative John W. Scott chaired its House counterpart. There were four black legislators on the joint committee. No black legislator was appointed to either subcommittee.

State-wide public hearings soliciting citizen input were conducted by the subcommittees from July through October 1981. One of the principal issues debated in the various fora concerned the possibility of fashioning a district centered in Orleans Parish, which, as the 1980 census data reflected, had a black population of 55%. Representative Richard Turnley, in his capacity as Chairman of the Louisiana Legislative Black Caucus, testified...