Test Established on Legality of Voting Schemes (Washington Post)
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July 1, 1986

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Case Files, Thornburg v. Gingles Working Files - Guinier. Test Established on Legality of Voting Schemes (Washington Post), 1986. 6fccbaa7-db92-ee11-be37-6045bdeb8873. LDF Archives, Thurgood Marshall Institute. https://ldfrecollection.org/archives/archives-search/archives-item/985b97a3-9530-4de6-a37a-c3213a5c42b4/test-established-on-legality-of-voting-schemes-washington-post. Accessed May 13, 2025.
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,/ \ \ THE WASHINGTON PAGE 1 POST JULY I, 1 986 Grounds to Sue On Yoter Rights Are Broatlened By Al Kamen Wrshh6m Pct St:tf Wrilcr hst Established on l*grlity of Voting Schemes North Carolina in Thonburg o. Gingle.s, argued that the lower court was improperly attempting to guarantee mlnorities a minimum nunrber of seats based on their per- centage of the voting population in the multimember districts, and that redistricting plans should be accept- ed if they do not impede the rights of black voters to participate in the electoral process. Brennan said that the "mere loss of an occasional election" by minor.: ity candid;rtes does not mean a law is discriminatory. Rather, it is the "predictability" of such losses in a setting- o( racially polarized bloc voting that makes the difference. The Jusrice Department's position in this case sparked a highly unusual response by the authors of the lg82 amendments to the law, including Senate Majority Leader Robert J. Dole (R-Kan.), who filed a brief with the court saying that the administra- tion's vierv misrepresented the pur- pose of the bitl they wrote. Dole, in a statement yesterday, praised the decision, saying that tlie court "hel'.red guarantee that racial and ethnic minorities will be enti- ?he Supreme Court, ending a hard-fought political and. legal battle over the Voting Rights Act, yester- day made it significantly easier for minorities to successfully challenge electoral schenrcs that lessen their voting power The'ruling, which eitablished a broad new test for lower courts to follow when considering claims of voting rights discrimination, was a clear setback for the Reagan admin- istration's efforts to limit the scope of the 1982 amendments to the Voting Rights Act. In an opinion byJustice WilliamJ. Brennan Jr., the court said Con- gress clearly intended that local election laws may be found discrim- inatory if their result, regardless of their intent, is to reduce or dilute black voting power. Such dilution may occur, the court said, when changes in election law wind up submerging a politicalty cohesive black district so that its candidates are "usually, defeated by whiter voting hs a bloc. The cqrrt unanimously reirted the administration's contention that a jurisdiction can prove the absence of discrimination by showing that 8co V0IINQ A0. CoL I VO|IING, Fron Al ninorities are occasionally elected to office in a challenged district. U9here the law "generally works to dilute the minority vote," Brennan rrote, "it cannot be defended on 3he ground that it sporadically and serendipitously benefits minority voters.' Yesterday's ruling came in a case involving a North Carolina redis- tricting plan that provided for elect- ing several legislators from single, large voting districts with white mafurities. Black voters challenged the plan in court, saying that the new multimember districts sub- merged within them majority black areas that might have been able to elect their own candidates in a sin- gle-member system. A federal court agreed, saying the use of such multimember dis- tricts in most cases illegally tliluted minority voting strength. North Carolina appealed the ruling, argu- ing that the plan was legal because blacks had won elections in all those districts. The Justice Department, joining tled to participate in the olectoral process." The administration also had ar- gued that adpeals courts in voting rights cases should give special scrutiny to the findings of lower courts. Brennan reicted that view as well, saying that appeals courts should review,these cases as they would any other and overturn them only when 'tlearly erroneous." Brennarr said the North Carolina federal court for the most part cor- rectly applied the law to strike down the plan. Ilrennan said, however, thai in one of the five districts involved in the case, the lower court erred by ignoring the significance of "sz.r- tained success black voters have experienced" in that district. Although the justices were unan- inrous in striking down virtually all of the challenged North Carolina scheme, the court split 5 to 4 over the standards that should be used to determine when such plans are il- legal. Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, in a concurring opinion for four jus- tices, said the mailrity analysis went too far, setting a legal stan- .dard that creates a right to a form of proportional representation. O'Connor, joined by Chief Justice Warren E. Burger and Justices Lewis F. Powell Jr. and William H. Rehnquist, agreed, however, that the lower court .ruling should be upheld for the most part. Julius Chambers, who argued the case for the NMCP Legal Defense and Educational Fund Inc., said the ' 'bpinion gives'us a powerful new tool for ensuring the equal rights of minorities to register, to vote and to have their votes counted with equal weight." Assistant Attorney General Wil- liam Bradford Reynolds and Solic- itor General Charles Fried said there were some important bright spots for the administration in yes- terday's decision. Reynolds said he was "disappointed that the court did not adopt our position wholesale. On the other hand, we are extreme- ly pleased" that the court did not require proportional representation by race and that it reversed the lower court on one of the five con- tested districts.