U.S. v. Uvalde Consol. Independent School Dist., 79-1498

• Decision Date: 02 September 1980
• Docket Number: No. 79-1498,79-1498
• Citation: 625 F.2d 547
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. UVALDE CONSOLIDATED INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT et al., Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

Page 547

625 F.2d 547

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. UVALDE CONSOLIDATED INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT et al.,

Defendants-Appellees.

No. 79-1498.

United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit.

Sept. 2, 1980.

Rehearing and Rehearing En Banc Denied Oct. 9, 1980.

Drew S. Days, III, Walter Barnett, David Marblestone, Civil Rights Div., Dept. of Justice, Washington, D.C., for plaintiff-appellant.

Jeffrey A. Davis, Houston, Tex., for defendants-appellees.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas.

Before HILL, RUBIN and ANDERSON, Circuit Judges.

ALVIN B. RUBIN, Circuit Judge:

A complaint by the Attorney General, in the name of the United States, brought under the Voting Rights Act of 1965, as amended, 42 U.S.C. §§ 1971, 1973 to 1973bb-1, alleges that an at-large system of electing representatives to a local school board in Texas "has been implemented with the intent and purpose of causing . . . irreparable injury to Mexican-American voters . . . by effectively and purposefully precluding them from meaningful access to the political process . . . ." The district court dismissed the suit for failure to state a claim upon which relief could be granted Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6). Because we find that the complaint made allegations which, if proved, would be sufficient to warrant relief, we reverse and remand for further proceedings.

I.

The case reaches us on the unsupported but not yet disproved allegations of the complaint. This initial pleading, which is required only to give notice of the claim, must be construed liberally so as to do substantial justice. Fed.R.Civ.P. 8(e). A complaint is not to be dismissed under Rule 12(b)(6) unless it appears to a certainty that no relief can be granted under any set of facts that can be proved in support of its allegations. ¹

The complaint alleges that:

the seven member Board of Trustees of the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District is elected at-large;

approximately fifty percent of the population of the school district is Mexican-American, but Mexican-American voters' residences are concentrated in one part of the City of Uvalde;

only one Mexican-American has ever been elected to the Board of Trustees and currently no Mexican-Americans serve on the board ²

voting is normally along racial lines;

the Board has discriminated against Mexican-Americans in the past by operating intentionally segregated elementary schools and is unresponsive to the needs of the Mexican-American community;

as a result of the school district's election system, Mexican-Americans have less opportunity than "whites" to participate in the political process and to elect candidates of their choice to the Board;

the at-large system of electing the Board has been implemented with the purpose of causing, and is causing, irreparable injury to Mexican-American voters by denying them, in effect, meaningful access to the political process and by frustrating their right to a full, undiluted vote.

Relying on these allegations, the Attorney General sought a judgment declaring that the at-large election system violated section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, 42 U.S.C. § 1973, and enjoining the use of that system.

Acknowledging that at-large systems of selecting voters may violate the fourteenth amendment, see White v. Regester, 412 U.S. 755, 93 S.Ct. 2332, 37 L.Ed.2d 314 (1973); Whitcomb v. Chavis, 403 U.S. 124, 91 S.Ct. 1858, 29 L.Ed.2d 363 (1971), and, that if the complaint had been filed by an aggrieved voter, the allegations might state a fourteenth amendment claim, the district court nevertheless held that section 2 of the Voting Rights Act does not itself prohibit the maintenance of an at-large method of election for school board members, ³ and, therefore that the Attorney General had no basis for the suit. Before this court the school district contends that the district court's conclusion should be affirmed both because section 2 does not reach at-large districting schemes and because a school board is not a "State or political subdivision" covered by section 2. We address each argument in the light of Supreme Court and Fifth Circuit interpretations of the Voting Rights Act. In doing so, we do not repeat the discussion of its history and purposes set forth in many prior decisions. See, e. g., United States v. Board of Commissioners of Sheffield, Ala., 435 U.S. 110, 98 S.Ct. 965, 55 L.Ed.2d 148 (1978); Allen v. State Board of Elections, 393 U.S. 544, 89 S.Ct. 817, 22 L.Ed.2d 1 (1969). However, we point out that the single statute contains a number of different provisions each with a different objective, that for its comprehension critical examination of each section is essential and that the reader cannot, therefore, assume that each of the sections is designed to reach the same objective or is necessarily to be read in the same manner. ⁴

II.

Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, 42 U.S.C. § 1973, which was amended in 1975 to include the words italicized below, provides:

No voting qualification or prerequisite to voting, or standard, practice, or procedure shall be imposed or applied by any State or political subdivision to deny or abridge 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 4(f)(2) (42 U.S.C. § 1973b(f)(2)).

The guarantees of section 1973b(f)(2) (section 4(f)(2) of the amended Act) assure against any denial or abridgment of the right to vote because the voter is a member of a language minority group. ⁵ The Attorney General is authorized to sue to prevent violations of section 2. ⁶

The statute applies to any "standard, practice, or procedure" that "den(ies) or abridg(es)" the right of language minority groups to vote. Section 5 of the Act, 42 U.S.C. § 1973c, which prohibits certain jurisdictions from enacting any new "standard, practice or procedure with respect to voting" unless advance clearance is obtained, has been held to include changes from multiple single district to at-large election systems. See Allen v. State Board of Elections, 393 U.S. 544, 89 S.Ct. 817, 22 L.Ed.2d 1 (1969). However, section 5 is more broadly remedial than section 2 and reaches all changes in voting laws and not simply voting practices that deny or abridge the right to vote. Thus, some members of the Supreme Court have reasoned that the broad interpretation given to section 5 may not justify a similarly broad reach for section 2. "(Section 2) does not deal with every voting standard, practice, or procedure, but rather is limited to voting procedures that deny someone the right to vote." Dougherty County Board of Education v. White, 439 U.S. 32, 51, n.4, 99 S.Ct. 368, 379, n.4, 58 L.Ed.2d 269 (1978) (Powell, J., dissenting, joined by Burger, C. J., and Rehnquist, J.) These Dougherty dissenters became a plurality in City of Mobile v. Bolden, --- U.S. ----, 100 S.Ct. 1490, 64 L.Ed.2d 47 (1980) when they joined in an opinion by Justice Stewart holding that the mere dilution of the voting rights of a racial group did not violate the fifteenth amendment or, consequently, section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.

The school district now asserts, on the authority of City of Mobile v. Bolden, that a section 2 claim is not stated by allegations of dilution of voting rights, even coupled with a claim of discriminatory purpose.

III.

Bolden reversed a decision of this court holding that Mobile's at-large system of elections operated to discriminate against black voters in violation of the fourteenth and fifteenth amendments. See Bolden v. City of Mobile, 571 F.2d 238 (5th Cir. 1978). Our opinion had held that, if the challenged election laws were maintained for a discriminatory purpose, they violated both the fourteenth and fifteenth amendments, and that the plaintiffs had successfully proved discriminatory motive in the district court. The Supreme Court reversed our judgment.

The Bolden panel had not considered the statutory section 2 claims but upheld the judgment of the district court because the districting was found to violate both the fourteenth and fifteenth amendments. The Supreme Court, however, reviewed the circuit court decision under the statute as it stood prior to the 1975 amendment. While the members of the Court were not able to agree on a majority opinion, a plurality concluded that "the sparse legislative history of (pre-amendment) § 2 makes clear that it was intended to have an effect no different from that of the Fifteenth Amendment itself." It, therefore, discussed the scope of the fifteenth amendment alone as coextensive with, as well as limitative of, section 2.

The plurality seems to conclude at one point "that the Fifteenth Amendment applies only to practices that directly affect access to the ballot" and is therefore not relevant to cases involving at-large districting. See Bolden, --- U.S. at ----, 100 S.Ct. at 1509 n.3, 64 L.Ed.2d at 47 (Stevens, J., concurring in the judgment) Cf. Dougherty County Board of Education v. White, 439 U.S. 32, 99 S.Ct. 368, 379 n.4, 58 L.Ed.2d 269 (1978) (Powell, J., joined by Burger, C. J., and Rehnquist, J.) (section 2 "is limited to voting procedures that deny someone the right to vote"). However, Justice Stewart's opinion for the plurality also includes an extensive discussion of the need for proof of "racially discriminatory motivation" in a fifteenth amendment challenge to voting laws and implies that, where minorities register and vote without hindrance, such purposeful discrimination had not been shown. See Bolden, --- U.S. at ----, 100 S.Ct. at 1517, 64 L.Ed.2d at 47 (White, J., dissenting) ("A plurality of the Court today agrees with the courts below that maintenance of Mobile's at-large system for election of city commissioners violates the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments only if it is motivated by a racially disciminatory purpose.") Thus, the plurality's rejection of the fifteenth...