Attorney Notes Page 39
Working File
January 1, 1983

Cite this item
-
Case Files, Thornburg v. Gingles Working Files - Guinier. Jones v. City of Lubbock Memorandum Opinion, 1983. 00d92804-dd92-ee11-be37-6045bdeb8873. LDF Archives, Thurgood Marshall Institute. https://ldfrecollection.org/archives/archives-search/archives-item/95e9c8ab-7d72-49d6-8dda-2631b5a818d3/jones-v-city-of-lubbock-memorandum-opinion. Accessed May 22, 2025.
Copied!
, IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT I FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF TE)GS LUBBOCK DIVISION )- x 1.. .]AIi t '.\ ' .-ri' I I J :: .- - ;:. i: '.t r.z,^I , ;31 REV. ROY JONES, et a1., JAnZ $ ffilai.ntiffs, JoSEpt.t i.iciLR3y, JR., Cl. ERI(8Y"""""'-"' L)-...,, i clvrl, ACTIoN NO. CA-5-76-34 RECETVED v. CITY Of LUBBOCK, TH(AS, et al., Defendants. MEMORANDT'M OPINION This case came on for trlal before the court on the 10th day of January, 1983, wlth all parties and attorneys present. The court has heard and cousidered the evidence offered, the pLeadings, and the briefs aud'argument,s of the attorneys. The case ls pending before the court on remand from the United States Court of Appeals for the Flfth Circuit. Jones v. Cltv of Lubbock, 640 F.zd 777 (5th Clr. 1981); Jones v. Clty of Lubbock, 682 E.zd 504 (5rtr Cir. 1982) Subsequent to the courtrs orlginal judlnent in this case, on June 8, Lg7g, the Supreme Court of the United States declded two cases, Cltv oi Moblle v. Bolden, 445 U.S. 55 (1980), and Rogers v. Lodge, _ U.S. _r 102 S.Ct. 3272 (L982). The remand to thls courr was for rhe purpose of reexaminlng the evidence and to glve appropriate consideration to the teachlngs of these two Supreoe Court decislons which were decided after the courtrs original judgnent in this case. Ln additlon, the Congress of the Unlted States has amended the Votlng Rights Act of L965, Pub. L. No. 97-205, 96 Stat. 131 (June 29, 1982) (codified as amended at 42 U.S.C. SS 1973 et sea.). This amendment. to the Voting Rights Act of l-965 is alleged as an additonal ground for reLief by the pLaintiffs in thelr first amended original couplalnt. At the comDencement of the trlal on January 10, 1983, the court announced that in reaching its final declsion, lt would consider not only the evidence introduced at the current trlal, but t,he court would consider as part of the evldence ln thls case all the testlmony and exhlbits which had been lnrroduced ac.the first trLal ln 1978. It w6u1d be in light of all of said evldence that the court would render lts decislon. The court has prevlously ftled a Eemoranduo opinlon- to support lts 1979 judgrnent, and the findings and conclusions ln that memorandum opinion are incorporated hereln, except, that, lf there is a confllct '' between the 1979 memorandum and this memorandum, the findings of fact and concluslons of law ln thls opinion w111 prevall. Further, the court adopts all of the stlpulations of the parties as part of lts flndlngs of Al-though the oemorandum opinion of June 8, 1979 sets forth the controversy involved and the posltlons of the respectlve parties, the court sunmarlzes the nature of the controversy as follows: The named plalntiffs, representing two se-parate ninorlty groups, Lt Blacks and Mexican-Americans residing in the Clty of Lubbock, contend that the at-Iarge system of elect,ion of the four members of the CLty Councll of the Clty of Lubbock constltutes aD abridgeraent and dllutlon of thelr vote in such races. lhqy polnt out that the at-Iarge systen does not have any residency requireuent, that the candidates are reguired to recelve a majority of the vote before belng elected, that the candidates run by a numbered place, which constltutes an anti-single shot votLng practice, and that these requlrements deny thelr coDstituLional rights under the Flfteenth Amenduent and the Votlng Rights Act of 1965 as amended. Ttre plalntiffs have also pled a Fourteenth Anendnent vlolation, LI For the purposes of thls opinion, the term "Mexican-Americans" will be considered to include "Hispanicsr" "Spanish surnamed" and those of "Spanlsh-origin. " Although the court recognizes that distlnctions ruay be drawn between the varlous terms, the court belleves that such distinctions do not affect the findings in this case, and all such groups are considered as comprising one minorlty class known as "Mexlcan-Arnericans." -2- but this contention r.,ras neither argued nor presented to the court at thls second trlal, and the determlnatlon of any such Fourteenth Amendment violatlon ls not necessary. The defendant clty and city officials counter with the positlon that there is no dllution or denlal of these rnlnorltLes to fu1ly particlpate in the election process in Lubbock, Texas because Lubbock per:nlts one to announce and run for places on the Clty Councll without paynent of a fillng fee, the necesslty o! a petltlon, or any other restriction; and that, aII parties, including minorltl.es, can vote without the payment of any polI tax and without any hindrance whatsoever from the clty or any of its officlals. In entering its initlal judgment, this court at.teEpted to fol1ow the standards and crlterla as requlred by the Unlted States Court, of Appeals for the Flfth CLrcult in Zinmer v. McKeithen, 485 F.zd L297 (5tfr Clr. L973) (en banc), affrd'on other grounds sub nom. East Carroll Parish School Bd. v. Marsha11, 424U.5.636 (1976), and Nevett v. Sides, 57LF.2d 2Og (5th Cir. 1978), cert. denied 445 U.S. 951 (1980), as well as the united States ,"r';.;.fu, 412 u.s. 7s5 (1e73). The decisions in Mobl.Le and Rogers, citlng Washlngtou v. Davis, 426 U.S. 229 (L976), and other Suprepe Court declslons, required a discrixuinatory iDtent before rellef couLd be given for an alleged Fifteenth Amendment vlolation. The Congress of the Unlted States, in auending Sectioa 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 on June 29, L982, added language which has been referred to as a "results" test as dlstinguished from the intent apparently requlred by Moblle and Rogers. The Congressional Record of the Cotmittee Report, of the Unlted States Senate otr this votlng rights amendment, Senate Rep. No. 97-4L7, 97th Cong., 2d Sess., reprlnted in July 1982 U. S. Code Cong. & Ad. News 177, indicates that it was the intent of Congress to reestabllsh the standards and criteria of the various clrcuit courts and United States Supreoe Court as the law exlsted in this area prior to Mobile and Roger,s. The Congress failed to require a dlscrlninat.ory intent in either the -3- the establlshment or maintenance of an electlon practice or procedure and, in addltion, set forth certaLn standards that lt felt should gulde the courts ln determining whether there L,as a vlolation of the Fifteenth Amendnent and a violatlon of the Votlng Rights Act of 1965 as amended. These changes, as enacted by the Congress of the Unlted States, requlre a dlfferent approach to the problem of at-large elections than chat' .. required prior to such auendment or even Ehat that was required by Zimner and Nevett v. Sides Therefore, this court will analyze the evidence at both the first and second trials and apply such evldence to the standards as indicated in.the Conmlttee Report of the Untted States Senate. These standards are very similar to those set forth ln Zlnmer, but if there hras any doubt prior to the amendment of the Voting Rlghts Act as to whether or not discrininatory intentlon was required, that doubt has now been finally removed. The reroovaL of any requi:enent of discrlmlnatory intent as an element of recovery for violatlons of the Fifteenth Anendment or the Votlng Rights Act as anended requires a reevaluatlon of the evidence. This court w111 not again tecite the general facts but these are completely found as findlngs of fact in the courtts original opinion on pages two through five, incluslve. However, there has been some updatlng of these facts and the evldence now shows the population in 1980 iu the City of Lubbock is 173,979, of whlch 125,039 or 71.87" are white, 14,204 or 8.27 are Black, 31,085 or 17.92 ate Mexlcan-Anerican, and the remalniag 3,651 or 2.LZ are classlfied as "others." (Supp.Stip.Ex."SS-127). In analyzing the typica]. factors. suggested by the Senate Cor"mlttee's' Report, the court finds and concludes as follows: -4- A. THE EXTENT OF ANY HISTORY OF OFFICIAL DISCRIMINATION This factor was discussed as a primary factor l-n the June 8, LgTg memorandutr oplnion on page 32 under 'rEffects of Past Discrimination.rl As orlglnally found, and the court again flnds, there has been a history in Lubbock, Texas of officlal discriminatlon and it has been extensive'. Att,ached as Appendix A to the courtrs origlnal opinion are Texas Constltutional provisions and Texas statutory law, which also applied to Lubbock. It appears that racial- dlscrluinatLon was at one tine the offlclal pollcy of thls stat,e, lncluding denlal of mlnorltles of their rlght to vote. Although the court does not find that such official discrlmlnation exists in Texas or ln Lubbock today, lt Ls almost uncontradicted that such offlcial discrimination dld exLst to a wide extent at the turn of the century and for many, Eany years thereafa:t. _ In view of the courtts finding in lts origlnal opinion that there-L7as a history of official discrimination ln the State of Texas and that these discrlminatory praetices and procedures were in existence in the City of Lubbock ln the earlier years in the century, such factor points to the concluslon that the present electlon procedures in Lubbock resul-t from past dlscrinination. B. THE EXTENT TO IIHICH VOTING IN THE ELECTIONS OF LUBBOCK IS MCIALLY POLARIZED The originaL opLnion, page 9, found evidence of raclaIIy polarized voting Ln Lubbock. The hearing held Ln January of 1983 further establishes thls fact. Although the facts used and considered by platntiffst expert witness may have onitted other contrLbuting factors, he did use the evidence -5- in the record of this case in reaching a deterurlnation that there \das racial polarlzatlon ln the voting patterns of tubbock. Hls concluslons, based on a correlation nethod to ureasrife polari.zation ln voting, found a very hlgh correlatl.on, .90 or more' ln analyzing ftfteen races where Mexican-Anericans ran and seven where Blacks were candidates. . He testlfied that a .5 finding would be a high correlatlon of the measure.' of polarization in votlng but .9 as he found in most of the races anal-yzed \ras very high, 1n fact two-thlrds of then were above .9 and all above .5. The evidence points to the lnescapable concluslon that there is a high degree of polarized voting ln Lubbock. The defendanEs have correetly polnted out that ln reaching thLs correlation factor, the plalntiffst expert wltness, DE. Robert R. Brlschetto, used census data rather than actual voters for one of the two measures in his study. Nevertheless' the court believes that the results he atiainld are so strong that,, eveu had precise votlng statlstics been available, polarlzed votiug would have been shown. Although lt ls not the defendantsr burden to furnish controverting figures, defendantst own exPert witness, Dr. Delbert A' Taebel, after descrlbing ecologlcal fallacy and the effect factors other than ethnicity night have on voting behavior, admltted that with correlations as high as those found by Dr. Brlschetto, there is polarized voting ln Lubbock, but Dr. Taebel quallfied thl-s sdatement by saying he belleved that ethnicity rras not necessarLly an "overridlngrr factor. The exlstence of such a hlgh degree of Polarlzed voting' on the part of all races in Lubbock, ls a factor strongly lndicating that the rJ.ghts of minorlties have been abrldged or diluted because of thelr race or color in the use of an at-Iarge systen' -5- C. THE EXTENT TO WHICH LUBBOCK }IAS USED - I'NUSUALLY LARGE ELECTION DISTRICTS. ETC. The evidence establlshes the following: 1. That Lubbock, ln using the at-Iarge system of electlon, constitutes a dlstrlct of 91.5 square mll-es. .. 2. That Lubbock requires a uajorlty vote, or a runoff, before any person can be elected as a member of the Clty Council- . 3. Although there ls no ordlnance prohibitlng anti-single shot votlng, the reguiremeut that the candidates for the Clty Council in Lubbock, Texas anndunce for and run for a numbered place is tantamount to an antl-single shot provislon 4. Ihere ls no regulreuent that a candidate reside in a partlcular section or area, which has resulted in the election of Anglo candidates to the Clty Councll from the west and southwest or predominantly Anglo portions of the clty. Itris factor weighs heavily ln favor of a finding of dilution or abrldgement of the rlghts of minorltles t,o vote In Lubbockts at-1arge elections D. IS THERE A CANDIDATP SLATING PROCESS A}ID ARE UINORITIES DENIED ACCESS TO THAT PROCESS The court has not been convinced by the testimony aE elther trlal that there presetrtly exlsts any candidate slating process in Lubbock. At one time, twenEy-five or tnore years Past, there was a grouP, made up of Anglos, known as the "Emplre Builders." Thls was not a highly structured group but consisted mainly of white business and professionaL men who would ueet and urge certain citizens of Lubbock to run for clty offlces -7- and in turn give then their full support. No rninority group member ls known to have been invited or to have attended any of their meeti.ngs. Apparently this organizatLon has not existed for ,"o, ,.rrs and there is no evldence bf any.other slatlng group in Lubbock. Plalntlffs would urge that prlor to the 1982 elections, a for:ner Eayor, Dr. Granberry, was the host for a luncheon at the Universlty City Club at which flfty to sixty whlte business and professlonal men were.in attendance for the purpose of agreeing on candldates for city offices. However, the evldence also shows that at least one prominent member of the Black comunity was Lnvited to the meeting and there t as no discussion or consideration given to whether or not minorlties could attend or worild be lnvited to attend. One witness testlfied that he had on aE least two occasions urged members of the minority couurunity to run for city offlce but had not been successful except ln the case of a school board oember. The court flnds that there is no sfatfng process ln Lubbock and therefore thls factor does not weigh ln plalntlffst favor. E. TEE EXTENT TO IIHICH MINORITIES IN LUBBOCK BEAR THE EFFECTS OF DISCRI},TINATION IN AREAS oF EDUCATION, EMPLOYTEM. A]ID HEALTH The evidence indlcates that mlnorities, ln the past, were dlscriuinated agalnst la the areas of education, euplo)ment, and health which, under an at-Iarge system, results ln a dllution or abridgeoent of minoritlesr right to vote. I{trile 74.82 of the Anglos are high school graduates, only 30.37. of the Mexican-Americans ana 40.L7" of the Blacks have high school degrees (Ex.P-7A). The unemplolment rate as of JuIy 1982 for Lubbock SMSA is 57 for Anglos, 8.62 for Blacks, and 9.32 f.ot Mexican-Americans (S,rpp.Stip.198). According to the 1980 census a totaL of 28,82J- persons -8- in Lubbock County llve beloh, poverty level, of which L5,399 or 53.4 percent are elther Mexlcan-American or 81ack.(Supp'.Stlp.188). At the time that thls court wrote its original oplnion in June of L97g, the lnfant rnortallty rate ln the Clty of Lubbock was seventh highest ln Ehe nation for cltles of lts slze, the maJorlty of these deaths being among minorities. Thls factor has largely been remedied at this date as .. indlcated by the stipulatlon as to the testinony of R. D. Goodman (Ex.D-7A). The health department budget hae Lncreased frorn $787,684 in L977-78 to $1,739,673 Ln 1982-83, an increase of over LZOZ over thls period of tine (Ex.D-5A). In addltloo, the lnfant mortallty rate ln Lubbock has now dropped below the state or national averages (Ex.D-7A). Mr. Charlie Guy, a respected forner editor of the local paper, testified that when he first went on the schooL board in the 1930rs he was appalled by the condltion of the schools where the minoritLes were the predornlnant race. He states that he lr'-ediat.eLy urged the schooL board to rectlfy these condltions, and that. a program rras cormenced to do so. Although Lubbockts schools are now largely desegregated, it did take a lawsuit to effect such desegregatlon. The evldence further establishes that the income of minorities ls uuch less than that of whltes and in city emplo)ment this is also true (Supp.Srip.170 & Supp.Stlp.Ex."SS-24") . The court concludes that the extent of past discrlmination in such areas as educatlon, employment,, and health has, according to the wit,nesses on this subJect, hl.ndered their ability to participate effectively in the poL1tical process. The extent of such discriuination has greatly narrowed in recent years, but the effects on effective participation in the political process by minorities sti1l exlst. This is expressed ln several ways, -9- one of which is that minoritles do not vote because of their be1lef that their vote "will not mean anything" and a general apathet,lc attitude exists on the part of the minorities because.of srich past discrimination. However, lt is noted that ln recent years, Black and Mexican-American registration has lncreased on a percentage basls Eo the degree lt approxlnately equals that of Anglos. Thls is attrlbuted malnly, lf not soIeIy, to voter registration drlves in the minority preclncts ln Lubbock. e. F. HAVE POLITICAL CAI.{PAIGNS IN LUBBOCK BEHII CHAMCTERIZED BY OVERT OR SUBTLE RACIAL APPEALS There is no evldence in this record iirdicating that any racial appeal-s have been made to the voters in polltical campaigns, and this factor does not welgh in favor of the plaintiffs. G. utb nxtrur ro mrtcu urNoRrry cRoups HAVE BEEN ELECTED TO PUBLIC OFFIdE IN LTIBBOCK The auenduent to the Voting Rights Act of L965 states that one factor the court may consider in deternining whether plaintlffs are entitled to reli.ef is whether or not members of a protected class have been eLected to offLce in Lubbock. There have been no Blacks or Mexican- Americans elected to the City Council of Lubbock or to the office of Mayor of Lubbock although nany have announced thelr candidacy for such offices and appeared on the baIIot. Statistics ln this case indicate that some uinorlty candldates rnight have been elected had a single-nember systen of electiou Eo these offices been in effect (Ex.P-8A). Of course, Lt is axiomatic that Einorities do not, under the Constl- tution or the Voting Rlghts Act, have a right to be elected, Clty of Mob11e v. Bolden, 446 U.S. 55 (1980); Voting Rights Act, S 2(b) (June 29, 1982), 42 U.S.C. S 1973(-b)-, nor ls there any right of minorlties to have -10- an election distrlct so framed as to guarantee or lnsure election of a v. chavis, 403-u.s. lza (1971).urinorlty candidate. I{hltconb But,, under the totalLty of clrcumstances, the court finds that the fact that there have been no mlnorlty members elected does mltigate ln favor of the plainti.ffs. Defendants polnt out that a Mexlcan-Anerlcan has been elected Eo '' the school board ln Lubbock which has boundary lines almost coinciding wlth the boundary lines of the City of Lubbock; however, this member of thl school board was el-ected under a plurallty-vote system. DefendanEs also rely on the fact that there is a Mexican-Anerlcan rePresenting the Lub|ock area ln the Leglslature in the State of Texas, but he was elected after the enactment of a law which created a slngle-oember distrlct. Prlor to that, the at-large election for the Legislature was in effect and minorities Lrere not elected during that period. Llkewlse, a Black was elected as a Justice of the Peace ln the November 1982 electlons as a candldate of the Republ-ican Party. Ilis Democratlc oPPonent Iras a Mexlcaa-Amerlcan, and this race is inapposite to thls situation, because, again, the Justice of the Peace.race occurred ln a single-member district and one minority ran against another minorlty. E. HAS THERE BEEN RESPONSIVENESS ON THE PART OF ELECTED CITIZENS TO THE PARTICTII,ARIZED NEEDS OF }TINORITIES IN LUBBOCK Again, the court would refer to lts memorandun oplnion of June 8, L979. Io that opinion the court detalled the evidence which proved and established, without doubt, that the Clty of Lubbock has, and for many years past, responded to these particularized needs. Thls factor ls not deened to be one of the more inportant ones by the Senate -11- Conmittee, but was emphasLzed ln Zimmer and other cases. If responsiveness were the only factor to be consldered by thls couri, judgment would be entered for the defendants, because the overwhelming evldence establishes a real responsiveness by the Clty of Lubbock, lncludlng 1ts elected offlcials, toward the partlcularlzed needs of the cltyrs minorlty resldents. I. I^IAS THERE DISCRIMINATORY INTENT PRESENT IN ESTABLISHING LUBBOCK'S AT.LARGE SYSTW 0riglnal1y, the court, either expressly or inplledly, found that there qras no intent to dlscrlmi.nate agalnst mlnorities when the at-large system was established in Lubbock or ln the.malntenance of that system today. Ihe courE is st111 of the flra oplnlon that there ls no discrimina- tory intent by the Clty of Lubbock or any of its officlals ln maintaLning the at-1arge system. The policy is neutral on its face, and those of the present officials of the Clty of Lubbock iho testlfied are of the oplnion that it,s ualntenance is in the best lnterests of clvlc Eanagenent and the most effectlve way to have its elected officlals reply and be responsive to all of its citlzens. However, thls does not tnean that discriminatory intent was not present when the decislon to eruploy the at-1arge system for election of councj.l members ln Lubbock was made in 1917. At the second trial, evidence was introduced in the forn of editorlals from the old Lubbock Avalanche newspaper in the perlod fron 1909 to L924 when a Mr. James L. Dow was the editor, publlsher and owner of this paper. These editorials are shown in Plaintiffst Ex.I-A. It is not known whether or not these editorials represented the general views of the citizens of Lubbock, but suffice lt to say that Mr. Dowrs editorials were unhesitant in expressing derogatory and vile remarks toward Blacks and show a bias and bitterness -L2- on hls part toward the Black race. The evldence also shows that Ur. Janes L. Dow was a member of the City Charter Cornriisslon that prepared and submltted to the voters a charter to govern the City of Lubbock and provldi.ng for an at-large systern for electing lts council membera. In vlew of this additlonal evldence and ln llght of the past history of discrimination, lncluding discrlminatory enactment,s by the State .. Legislature, the court now concludes that the establl-shment of the at- large systen for the electlon of Clty Councll members in the City of Lubbock was done with a discrininatory lntent. CONCLUSION . The above findlngs support a concluslon that the at-large electioo system ln Lubbock results in an abrldgenent or denlal of the rlght of ni-norlties to vote. Adnittedly, all these factors do not point to such results, but under the totality of the circumstances such results are found to exist 1n Lubbock and constltute a denial of the rights guaranteed by the Flfteenth Amendment and the Votlng Rights Act of L955 as,-ended. These flndings indicat,e that the plaintiffs are entltled to rellef. As aoended, Sectlon 2(a) and (b) of the Voting Rights Act, 42 U.S.C. $ 1973, provides as follows: "Sec. 2. (a) No votlng qualificatlon or prerequisite to votLng or standard, practice, or procedure sha11 be imposed or applied by any State or polltlcal subdlvislon in a manner whlch results in a denial or abridgement of the rlght of any citizen of the United States to vote on account of race or color, or Ln contraventlon of the guarantees set forth in section 4(f) (2), as provided in subsection (b). "(b) A viol-atlon of subsectlon (a) is established Lf, based on the totality of the circuastirices, it is shown that the polltical processes leading to nomination or election ln the State or political subdlvision are not equally open to participation by meubers of a class of citizens protected by subsection (a) in that its members have l-ess opportunity than other members of the electorate -13- to partlcipate in the polltlcal process and to elect representatlves of their cholce. The extent to whlch members of a protected class have been dlected to office ln the State or polltlcal subdivlsion is one circumstance which nay be consldered:.Provlded, That nothing ln this section establlshes a rlghE to have members of a protected class elected ln numbers equal to thelr proportLon in the population. " The question to be deterulned by the court,, based on thede relevant factors and under the totallty of the circumstances, is: Do the ,enbers of the two cLasses of ruinorities ln this suit, Blacks and Mexican-Americans, have- less opportunlty than the ot.her members of the electorate to partlcipate in the election process and'to elect members of their choice? If so, the practice or procedure of the at,-large system of the City of Lubbock w111 be in violation of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and reIlef will be awarded. The answer to this question ls in the affirmative. Under the findings of the court with respect to the factors which the Congress deened to have been relevant to the determlnatlon of this question, and under the totality of all of the circuxostatrces and evldence in this case, it is inescapable that the at-large systen in Lubboek abridges and dilutes minoritiesr opportunitles to elect meubers of theLr own choice and that their opportunity is much less than that of the other members of the eLectorate. In view of such concluslons and findings, the court further finds that the Voting Rights Act of 1965 as amended, SS 2(a) and 2(b), prohibit the further use of the aE-Iarge system for the election of City Councll members in the City of Lubbock, Texas. Secondly, as the court has deterroined above that discritninatory intent was lnvolved in the original establishment of the at-large systen in Lubbock in the year 1917, that such at-Iarge system is a violation of the Fifteenth Amendment of the Constitutlon of the United States even though discriminatory intent is not reguired by the Congress in the -L4- Votlng Rlghts Act, the flndlng of dlscrlmlnatory *a"rra ln thls case fulfllle the iequlremeato of Moblle'and Rogers. By order of eveo date herewlth, the court w111 subnlt lts proposed plan for redlstrlctlng the clty. The Clerk w111 furnlsh a copy hereof to each attorney. ENTERED thie 20th day of January, 1983. Northern Dletrlct of Texas O. WOODI.TARD Chlef Judge -15-