Ruiz v. City of Santa Maria
| Decision Date | 05 November 1998 |
| Docket Number | No. 96-56564,96-56564 |
| Citation | 160 F.3d 543 |
| Parties | 98 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 8215, 98 Daily Journal D.A.R. 11,452 Esperanza RUIZ; Joseph Talaugon; Iltra Garcia; Francisco Delgado, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. CITY OF SANTA MARIA; City Council of Santa Maria; Bob Orach; Janet R. Kalland, City Council Members, City Clerk; all sued in their official capacities; Roger Bunch; Toru Miyoshi; Joseph Centeno; Abel Maldonado, Defendants-Appellees. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit |
Denise M. Hulett, Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, San Francisco, California, for plaintiffs-appellants.
John E. McDermott, Howrey & Simon, Los Angeles, California, for defendants-appellees.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Central District of California; James M. Ideman, District Judge, Presiding. D.C. No. CV-92-04879-JMI.
Before: WALLACE, TROTT and HAWKINS, Circuit Judges.
1
Four Hispanic residents and registered voters of the City of Santa Maria challenge the City's at-large city council election system under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, as amended, 42 U.S.C. § 1973. While the case was pending, two Hispanic candidates were elected to the city council. The district court dismissed the complaint as moot and, alternatively, granted summary judgment in favor of the City. We hold that the district court erred in dismissing the case as moot and applied erroneous legal standards to the Plaintiffs' vote dilution claim and, therefore, we reverse.
Santa Maria is a California general law city located in Santa Barbara County. Since its incorporation in 1905, it has employed an at-large system for electing its mayor and city council members. The mayor, who is also a member of the city council, is elected by a citywide plurality vote to serve a two-year term. Council members are elected by a citywide plurality vote for four-year terms. Their terms are staggered so that two council members are elected every other year. Each registered voter can vote for two candidates but is not prohibited from casting a single ballot ("single-shot" or "bullet" voting).
The City's 1990 population of 61,284 has doubled since 1970. According to the 1990 Census, 46.4% of the City's population is white, 45.7% is Hispanic, 1.9% is black, and 5.9% is Asian, Pacific Islander, or other. 2 The Hispanic population is growing: Hispanics were 27% of the City's population in 1970 and 33% in 1980. The parties' experts agreed that Hispanic population, citizenship, and voter registration will continue to grow but disagreed at what rate. While Hispanics comprised nearly one-half of the City's population in 1990, they were only 28.7% of the voting age citizen population.
Prior to 1994, no Hispanic had ever been elected mayor or council member. Twelve Hispanics ran and lost in city council and mayoral elections from 1972-1992--all but two placed last. The parties' experts studied four city council elections (1988, 1990, 1992, and 1994) and the 1990 mayoral election in depth and provided detailed statistical reports. 3 These reports showed that while Hispanic candidates were the first or second preference 4 of Hispanic voters in each election, Hispanic candidates were the least-preferred among non-Hispanic voters and came in last every time, except in 1994.
In 1988, four candidates ran for city council. Tom Urbanske, the incumbent who was white, was Hispanic voters' first preference. A Hispanic candidate was Hispanics' second preference but came in last overall, receiving only 15.7% of the non-Hispanic vote. Urbanske and another white candidate were elected.
In 1990, the City's long-time mayor, George Hobbs, was under fire from the Hispanic community for complaining about a "Mexican problem" in Santa Maria. 5 He easily won the mayoral election, receiving 71.4% of the non-Hispanic vote but only 13.3% of the Hispanic vote. Another white mayoral candidate withdrew from the race two months before the election because the community was so polarized along racial lines. Nevertheless, he finished second overall, receiving more non-Hispanics' votes than the two Hispanic candidates combined. The Hispanic candidates finished last and next-to-last, despite being Hispanic voters' first and second preferences.
The Hispanic candidate did not fare any better in the 1990 city council election. The Hispanic candidate was the first preference of Hispanic voters, receiving 66.2% of Hispanics' votes. Nonetheless, he received only 8.6% of the non-Hispanic vote and came in last out of five candidates. The two white incumbents, the first and second preferences of non-Hispanics while least-preferred by Hispanics, were re-elected.
In 1992, Urbanske, the white incumbent, was again Hispanic voters' first preference out of seven candidates. Hispanics' second preference, a Hispanic candidate, was least-preferred by non-Hispanic voters and came in last. Urbanske and Toru Miyoshi, 6 the third preference of Hispanics and non-Hispanics, were elected.
Plaintiffs filed this action in August 1992, seeking a declaration that the City's at-large election system impermissibly diluted the vote of Hispanics and an injunction creating a single-member district election system. Plaintiffs proposed a four- or five-district system in which Hispanics would comprise a majority of the voting age citizen population in one district. On the day before the July 1994 trial, the district court vacated the trial date because Plaintiffs had submitted new trial exhibits which contained statistical information from the June 1994 statewide primary elections and the City had no time to prepare rebuttal evidence. 7 The district court continued the trial for an additional reason: "an informed ruling in this matter requires a review of the results produced by the upcoming Santa Maria election in November 1994."
In the 1994 election, two Hispanic candidates were elected to the city council. Joe Centeno, the city's former police chief, finished first, as the second preference of Hispanics and non-Hispanics. Abel Maldonado, a young local businessman, won the second seat, as the first preference of Hispanics and the third preference of non-Hispanics. Non-Hispanic voters' first preference, a white candidate, came in third. Thus, in 1994, Hispanic voters succeeded in electing their first and second preferences to the city council. 8
In October 1995, the district court vacated the upcoming trial date and sua sponte issued an Order to Show Cause why the case should not be dismissed as moot. Plaintiffs argued that "special circumstances" surrounded the 1994 city council election, and thus the district court should ignore the results. Plaintiffs relied on four things to support their "special circumstances" argument:
(1) There was unprecedented crossover voting by non-Hispanics. From 1988-1992, non-Hispanic support for Hispanic city council candidates had declined, from 15.7% in 1988, to 8.6% in 1990, and to 4.7% in 1992. 9 Yet in 1994, 35.2% of non-Hispanics voted for Centeno, and 26.1% voted for Maldonado. It was the first election in which Hispanic candidates were not the least-preferred among non-Hispanic voters.
(2) The two Hispanic winners received endorsements from community organizations and politicians, including Mayor Hobbs, who had never before endorsed a Hispanic candidate. 10
(3) The winning Hispanic candidates received unprecedented financial contributions from non-Hispanic individuals and businesses. Prior to 1994, no Hispanic candidate had received more than $790 from non-Hispanics. In 1994, Centeno received $4,550 and Maldonado received $6,625 from the non-Hispanic community. Also, Maldonado spent approximately $32,000 on his campaign--three times the highest amount ever spent on a council election.
(4) It was well-known throughout Santa Maria and by city council members that Plaintiffs had filed a vote dilution lawsuit and that the district court had continued the trial to evaluate the results of the 1994 election. Five days before that election, Maldonado stated in the Santa Maria Times, 11
In September 1996, the district court dismissed the case as moot under Fed. R. Civ. Proc. 12(b)(1), stating that the election of two Hispanics to the city council precluded the court from granting effective relief to Plaintiffs. In the alternative, the court granted the City's Motion for Summary Judgment, finding that Plaintiffs could not prove that a majority voting bloc usually defeats the Hispanic-preferred candidate, a necessary precondition to establishing a claim of vote dilution. 12 This appeal followed. 13
We review de novo a district court's dismissal of an action on the ground of mootness and grant of summary judgment. See Native Village of Noatak v. Blatchford, 38 F.3d 1505, 1509 (9th Cir.1994) (mootness); Valladolid v. City of National City, 976 F.2d 1293, 1295 (9th Cir.1992) (summary judgment).
Article III of the Constitution limits federal courts to adjudicating actual, ongoing controversies between litigants. See Deakins v. Mohaghan, 484 U.S. 193, 199, 108 S.Ct. 523, 98 L.Ed.2d 529 (1988). Generally, an action is moot "when the issues presented are no longer 'live' or the parties lack a legally cognizable interest in the outcome." Lee v. Schmidt-Wenzel, 766 F.2d 1387, 1389 (9th Cir.1985) (internal quotations and citations omitted). "The basic question in determining mootness is whether there is a present controversy as to which effective relief can be granted." Northwest Environmental Defense Center v. Gordon, 849 F.2d...
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