Westwego Citizens for Better Government v. City of Westwego

• Decision Date: 28 October 1991
• Docket Number: No. 89-3552,89-3552
• Citation: 946 F.2d 1109
• Parties: WESTWEGO CITIZENS FOR BETTER GOVERNMENT, et al., Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. CITY OF WESTWEGO, et al., Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

Page 1109

946 F.2d 1109

WESTWEGO CITIZENS FOR BETTER GOVERNMENT, et al., Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. CITY OF WESTWEGO, et al., Defendants-Appellees.

No. 89-3552.

United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit.

Oct. 28, 1991.

Terry E. Allbritton, M. David Gelfand, New Orleans, La., Alice M. Jacobs, Metairie, La., Ronald Wilson, Dan Zimmerman, New Orleans, La., for plaintiffs-appellants.

Robert B. McDuff, Lawyers' Committee for Civ. Rights, Washington, D.C., amicus curiae.

Jon A. Gegenheimer, Harvey, La., John J. Molaison, Jr., Westwego City Atty., Gretna, La., for City of Westwego, et al.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana.

Before KING, JOHNSON and HIGGINBOTHAM, Circuit Judges.

KING, Circuit Judge:

We address, for a third time, the claims of a group of citizens from the city of Westwego, Louisiana that the form of their city's government bars Westwego's black citizens from any meaningful degree of participation in the city's political life. On the basis of the evidence presented to and the facts found by the district court, we conclude that the plaintiffs have prevailed on their claims under the Voting Rights Act. Accordingly, we reverse the district court's dismissal of their claims, render judgment in their favor, and remand for the development and implementation of an electoral scheme which will remedy the vote dilution that attends the current at-large method of electing aldermen.

I. Procedural History

The procedural history of this case has been an unfortunately prolonged one. Although more fully set out in the two prior opinions of this Court, see Westwego Citizens for Better Government v. City of Westwego, 872 F.2d 1201 (5th Cir.1989) (Westwego I ) and Westwego Citizens for Better Government v. City of Westwego, 906 F.2d 1042 (5th Cir.1990) (Westwego II ), it is useful to summarize that history here. Plaintiffs ¹ initially filed this action seven years ago, on November 20, 1984, alleging that Westwego's system of electing aldermen on an at-large basis diluted the voting strength of Westwego's black citizens, resulting in the denial or abridgement of those citizens' rights to participate in the political process and to elect candidates of their choice in violation of section 2 et seq. of the Voting Rights Act, 42 U.S.C. § 1973 et seq. Plaintiffs seek 1) a declaratory judgment that Westwego's at-large election system unlawfully dilutes black voting strength, 2) an injunction prohibiting future at-large Westwego aldermanic elections, 3) the replacement of the current at-large system with a scheme of single-member districts, and 4) their court costs and attorneys' fees. At the conclusion of a two-day bench trial, the trial judge dismissed the plaintiffs' action for reasons stated orally from the bench. Plaintiffs timely appealed.

This Court remanded the case for entry of specific findings of fact and conclusions of law. We held that because the district court "failed to explain its reasoning with sufficient particularity, we must remand this case to the district court so that it may make the specific findings of fact and conclusions of law necessary to support a judgment." Westwego I, 872 F.2d at 1204.

Promptly after we issued our mandate, and without any consultation with the parties or any further proceedings, the district court entered Supplemental Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law. Westwego II, 906 F.2d at 1043. In those supplemental findings and conclusions, the court held that the plaintiffs' case foundered for two reasons: 1) the plaintiffs had failed to demonstrate that blacks would constitute the majority of the voting age population of any single-member aldermanic district, and 2) the plaintiffs had failed to demonstrate that the white citizens of Westwego would vote as a bloc to defeat the candidates preferred by the city's black citizens. Id. In reaching this second conclusion, the district court stated that it was not persuaded that the plaintiffs' evidence of racially polarized voting among the Westwego electorate in exogenous ² elections was sufficient to establish that Westwego's white citizens would vote as a bloc in Westwego aldermanic elections. Id.

Within ten days of the district court's entry of its supplemental findings and conclusions, the plaintiffs moved to amend those findings and conclusions on the basis of evidence of developments in Westwego in the two years since the trial. In particular, plaintiffs wished to introduce evidence that in 1989, for the first time, a black man ran for alderman in Westwego and that the results of that (indigenous) election showed high racial polarization of the Westwego electorate. The plaintiffs also proffered evidence that under certain hypothetical single-member districting plans, a single-member aldermanic district could be created in which the black voting age population would exceed 50%, so that in those districts the black citizens of Westwego would possess the potential to elect candidates of their choice. The district court refused the plaintiffs' proffer and denied their motion. Again, the plaintiffs timely appealed.

This Court reluctantly held that it was necessary to remand the case for a second time. It was error for the district court to refuse to consider the evidence offered by the plaintiffs, and the district court still had not "explain[ed] specifically which evidence it finds credible and which it does not." Id. at 1044. Accordingly, we remanded the case to the district court "for further proceedings, including a hearing at which [the plaintiffs] will have the opportunity to adduce the evidence referred to in their motion." Id. at 1047. We specifically directed the district court to "enter supplemental findings of fact and conclusions of law on the two issues discussed and on any other issues raised by the parties and the evidence...." Id. This panel otherwise retained jurisdiction of this appeal.

On the second remand the district court held a hearing at which the plaintiffs presented their evidence and the defendants responded. Prior to the hearing both sides had submitted to the district court proposed findings of fact, and after both sides had presented their evidence, the district court announced from the bench which of the plaintiffs' and defendants' proposed findings it adopted and which it rejected. The district court did not draw any conclusions of law or enter any new judgment, believing that the limited scope of our remand did not confer jurisdiction on it to do anything but make additional findings of fact. The parties have now returned to this Court, each claiming to have prevailed.

II. Facts

Careful review of the entire record discloses that the district court found or the parties stipulated to the following facts.

A. Westwego and its Board of Aldermen

The city of Westwego lies just across the Mississippi River from New Orleans. It has an area of one square mile, and is bisected by the West Bank Expressway, a wide highway that runs east-west. Westwego is divided by the Bureau of the Census into three tracts, numbered from south to north as 271, 272, and 273. Tract 271 contains south Westwego, below the West Bank Expressway. Tract 272 contains most of the city's population north of the Expressway, and tract 273 runs along the Mississippi River and contains some population in its western section. The central and eastern sections of Tract 273 are uninhabited. According to the 1990 census, the population of Westwego is 11,218 persons, of whom 81.6% are white and 15.6% are black. The total voting age population of the city of Westwego is 8,072 persons, of whom 85.1% are white and 12.4% are black.

Westwego is governed by a mayor and board of five aldermen. The board of aldermen exercises considerable authority: all permits, zoning changes, land use requests, and licenses to operate a business or sell alcoholic beverages must be approved or granted by the board. Louisiana law authorizes municipalities like Westwego to have from five to nine aldermen, elected at large, by districts, or by a system that combines the two. Westwego has always elected all of its aldermen at-large. There is no requirement that aldermanic candidates run for a specific seat, and there is no "anti-single-shot" ³ provision, but Westwego does have a majority vote requirement. ⁴

No black candidate has ever been elected to the board of aldermen or to any other municipal office in Westwego. Prior to the 1989 aldermanic primary election, no black had ever run for alderman in Westwego. In 1989, Glenn Green, a black resident of Westwego and former policeman, ran for a position on the board of aldermen. Of the sixteen candidates in the 1989 primary, Green finished twelfth. He received approximately 89% of the black vote and approximately 16% of the white vote. Green did not qualify for the runoff election and was not elected to office.

B. The Districting Plans Proposed by the Plaintiffs

At trial the plaintiffs proposed three plans for dividing Westwego into single-member aldermanic districts and proposed two more plans at the hearing held on the second remand of this case. These plans were identified as Plans A through E. Two are of interest here. Plan A was the first plan the plaintiffs proposed. It was originally conceived based on 1980 census data, and contains five single-member districts. Data from the 1990 census indicates that one of the districts in Plan A would have a total black population of 59.6% and a black voting age population of 54.0%. At the hearing held on the second remand of this case, the plaintiffs proposed Plan D. Plan D is a variation on Plan A, drawn to account for population changes between 1980 and 1990. It too contains five single-member districts, and according to 1990 census data one of its districts would have a total black population of 59.1% and a black voting age population of 52.8%.

The district court found that plaintiffs' districting Plan A was...