United States v. Board of Commissioners of Sheffield, Alabama

Decision Date06 March 1978
Docket NumberNo. 76-1662,76-1662
Citation55 L.Ed.2d 148,98 S.Ct. 965,435 U.S. 110
PartiesUNITED STATES, Appellant, v. BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS OF SHEFFIELD, ALABAMA, et al., Appellees
CourtU.S. Supreme Court
Syllabus

Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 provides that whenever "a State or political subdivision with respect to which" § 4 of the Act is in effect shall enact any voting qualification or standard, practice, or procedure with respect to voting different from that in force on November 1, 1964, the change has no effect as law unless such State or subdivision obtains, as specified in the statute, a declaratory judgment that the change does not have a racially discriminatory purpose or effect. Alternatively, the change may be enforced if it is submitted to the Attorney General and he has interposed no objection to it within 60 days after the submission, or has advised that objection will not be made. The city of Sheffield, Ala., on November 1, 1964, had a commission form of government. Some months later it sought to put to a referendum the question whether the city should adopt a mayor-council form of government, and respondent Board of Commissioners for the city gave the Attorney General written notice of the referendum proposal, Alabama being a State covered under § 4 of the Act. The referendum was held and the voters approved the change. Thereafter, the Attorney General replied that he did not object to the holding of the referendum but that since the voters had elected to adopt the mayor-council form of government, "the change is also subject to the preclearance requirement of Section 5" and that detailed information should be submitted if preclearance was sought through the Attorney General. Following his receipt of such information, the Attorney General made objection to a phase of the change that involved the at-large election of city councilmen. After the city nevertheless scheduled an at-large council election, the United States brought this suit to enforce the § 5 objection. The District Court denied relief, holding that Sheffield was not covered by § 5 because it was not a "political subdivision" as that term is defined in § 14(c)(2) of the Act, which provides that " 'political subdivision' shall mean any county or parish, except that where registration for voting is not conducted under the supervision of a county or parish, the term shall include any other subdivision of a State which conducts registration for voting," and that therefore Sheffield was not a

political subdivision because in Alabama registration is conducted by the counties. The court also held that by approving the referendum, the Attorney General had approv d the mayor-council form of government in which councilmen were elected at large, notwithstanding his statement regarding preclearance. Held:

1. Section 5 of the Act applies to all entities having power over any aspect of the electoral process within designated jurisdictions, not only to counties or other units of state government that perform the function of registering voters, and the District Court therefore erred in holding that Sheffield is not subject to § 5. Pp. 117-135.

(a) The District Court's interpretation of the Act does not comport with the Act's structure, makes § 5 coverage depend upon a factor completely irrelevant to the Act's purposes, and thereby permits precisely the kind of circumvention of congressional policy that § 5 was designed to prevent. Section 5 "was structured to assure the effectiveness of the dramatic step Congress [took] in § 4" and "is clearly designed to march in lock-step with § 4." Allen v. State Board of Elections, 393 U.S. 544, 584, 89 S.Ct. 817, 841, 22 L.Ed.2d 1 (Harlan, J., concurring and dissenting). Since jurisdictions may be designated under § 4(b) by reason of the actions of election officials who do not register voters and since § 4(a) imposes duties on all election officials, whether or not they are involved in voter registration, it follows from the very structure of the Act that § 5 must apply to all entities exercising control over the electoral process within the covered States or subdivisions. The Act's terms and decisions of this Court clearly indicate that § 5 was not intended to apply only to voting changes occurring within the registration process or only to the changes of specific entities. Pp. 118-125.

(b) The Act's language does not require such a crippling construction as that given by the District Court. In view of the explicit relationship between § 4 and § 5 and the critical role that § 5 is to play in securing the promise of § 4(a), it is wholly logical to interpret "State . . . with respect to which" § 4(a) is in effect as referring to all political units within it. Pp. 126-129.

(c) The contemporaneous administrative construction of § 5 by the Attorney General and the legislative history of the enactment and re-enactments of the Act compel the conclusion that Congress always understood that § 5 covers all political units within designated jurisdictions like Alabama. Pp. 129-135.

2. The Attorney General's failure to object to the holding of the referendum did not constitute clearance under § 5 of the method of electing city councilmen under the new government. Since Sheffield sought approval only for the holding of the referendum, not for pre-

clearance of the change in the city's form of government, and the Attorney General had warned the city that the change itself required prior federal scrutiny and advised what detailed information would be necessary for that purpose, it is irrelevant that he might have been on notice that if the referendum passed, Sheffield would under state law have had to adopt an at-large system of councilmanic elections. Pp. 981-983.

430 F.Supp. 786, reversed.

Drew S. Days, III, Washington, D. C., for the appellant.

Vincent J. McAlister, Jr., Sheffield, Ala., for appellees.

Mr. Justice BRENNAN delivered the opinion of the Court.

Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (Act), 79 Stat. 439, as amended, 42 U.S.C. § 1973c (1970 ed., Supp. V),1

requires that States, like Alabama, which are covered under § 4 of the Act, 79 Stat. 438, as amended, 42 U.S.C. § 1973b (1970 ed., Supp. V),2 obtain prior federal approval before changing any voting practice or procedure that was in effect on November 1, 1964. The questions for decision in this case are (1) whether § 5 requires an Alabama city that has never conducted voter registration 3 to obtain preclearance of a voting change and (2), if so, whether the failure of the Attorney

General of the United States to object to the holding of a referendum election at which a change is adopted constitutes federal approval of that change.

I

The city of Sheffield, Ala. (City or Sheffield), was incorporated in 1885 by the Alabama Legislature. As incorporated, the City was governed by a mayor and eight councilmen, two councilmen being elected directly from each of the City's four wards. Sheffield retained this mayor-council government until 1912 when it adopted a system in which three commissioners, elected by the City at large, ran the City. This commission form of government was in effect in Sheffield on November 1, 1964.

Sometime prior to March 20, 1975, Sheffield decided to put to a referendum the question whether the City should return to a mayor-council form of government.4 On that date the president of the Board of Commissioners of Sheffield wrote the Attorney General of the United States to "give notice of the proposal of submitting to the qualified voters of the City, whether the present commission form of government shall be abandoned in favor of the Mayor and Alderman form of government." 5 On May 13, 1975, before the Attorney General

replied, the referendum occurred, and the voters of Sheffield approved the change.

On May 23, the Attorney General formally responded to Sheffield that he did "not interpose an objection to the holding of the referendum," but that "[s]ince voters in the City of Sheffield elected to adopt the mayor-council form of government on May 13, 1975, the change is also subject to the preclearance requirements of Section 5." The Attorney General's letter also stated that in the event the City should elect to seek preclearance of the change from the Attorney General it should submit detailed information concerning the change, including a description of "the aldermanic form of government which existed in 1912 and the method by which it was elected, i. e., the number of aldermen, the terms and qualifications for the mayor and aldermen, whether the aldermen were elected at large or by wards, whether there were numbered post, residency, majority vote or staggered term requirements for the aldermanic seats, and whether single shot voting was prohibited."

Thereafter the City informed the Attorney General that the proposed change would divide the City into four wards of substantially equal population, that each ward would have two council seats, that councilmen from each ward would be elected at large, and that candidates would run for numbered places. Subsequently the City furnished a detailed map showing ward boundaries, data concerning the population distribution by race for each ward, and a history of black candidacy for city and county offices since 1965. The City's submission was completed on May 5, 1976.

On July 6, 1976, the Attorney General notified the City

that while he did not "interpose any objection to the change to a mayor-council form of government . . . to the proposed district lines or to the at-large election of the mayor and the president of the council," he did object to the implementation of the proposed at-large method of electing city councilmen because he was "unable to conclude that the at-large election of councilmen required to reside in districts will not have a racially discriminatory effect."

Notwithstanding the Attorney General's objection, the City scheduled an at-large council election...

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