Republicans Buck the President On a Voting-Rights Court Case (The New York Times)

Press
September 4, 1985

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Republicans Buck the President On a Voting-Rights Court Case (The New York Times) preview

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  • Case Files, Thornburg v. Gingles Working Files - Guinier. Republicans Buck the President On a Voting-Rights Court Case (The New York Times), 1985. eb35b9b9-db92-ee11-be37-6045bdeb8873. LDF Archives, Thurgood Marshall Institute. https://ldfrecollection.org/archives/archives-search/archives-item/01a343c2-a18c-4afb-a2e7-fa694763b8b3/republicans-buck-the-president-on-a-voting-rights-court-case-the-new-york-times. Accessed May 21, 2025.

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    The New York Tim6,/Garge Tam6

Republicans Buck the Fresident
On a Voting-Rights Court Case
!T.is a happy time forpubticof_

I ,""?l'"E#i?lilHi:fr fl :;
see a political issue and a ..gooi
government', issue coincide.
Some key Republicans have long
seen such.a conjunction in tegisl
Iative districting practices inDemocratic Southern states,
which they feel discriminate
against both blacks and theG.O.l. Last week, Republican
members of Cougress 

-ana 
Ueparty's national committee

joined with Democrats in filing
briefs opposing the Reagan AdI
ministration in tlre first major
legal 

_ test of .the .ecenily
amended Voting nights act. t;t
saying the Administration had
misstated the intent of the act,the legislators, who included
Bob Dole, the Senate majority
leader, heightened the conflici
between' the white House,s
states rights philosophy and the
Republican party,s d-esire to bol_
ster its strength at the local levet
and broaden its appeal to mi_
nority voters.

The case before the Court in_
volves a North Carolina redis_
lTrctinC plan challefQed by
blacks contending theii votin!

power was diluted by gerryrnan-
gelng.A panel of three Federaljudges rrled that tt 

" 
pf""

fl.*oa black voters b"duse
distncls with sizable Ulact ma-jorities could have been drawn
but all but one of the ne* dis-
tricts.had white majorities. The
Legrstature appealed; the Jus_
tice Department supported it in
i,llr_.r SrSuing that the Voting
Rtghts Act was designed to asl
sure "eccess to the electoral pro,
cess - not insure victories for
minority candidates.',

The legal issue is how the
courts should interpret the cen_tral command of the amended
law:. that -a voting procqgure
wntcn results in discrimination
is as illegal as a procedure which
ts- intentionally discriminatory.
Mr. Dole, who had sponsordd
compromise wording in the law
that led to grudging ldministra_
tlon support in lgg2, put the polit-
rcal issue this way at a news oon-
Ierence: "I think too often we're
sort of on the periphery,,' he said
or rus party. ..We,re never really
in there when black Americani
need our help."

(Republicans resist the Rea_
gan trade policy tao, page 4.)

,/lrip'

?n*".// f-+-'-'

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