Correspondence from Chambers and Greenberg to Bradford Reynolds and Jones

    CHAMBERS. FEREL'sON. WATT, WALLAS. ADKINS & Ft !

AT"ORNEYS AT L.AW

SUITE 73O EAS" INDEPENOENCE PI-AZ\

, 9rI SOUTH INOEPENOENC= ACULEVAEC
JULJUS L6/ONNE CHAMAEPS CHARLOTTE NQRTH CAROLINA 2A?.O2
iAMEs E FERGUSoN- tt EL€PHoNE ( 7o4) 37s.e46 r.iELVIN L WAil
,ONATHAN WALLAS
(AFrLAoxrNs Octobet 22, I9g1
IAMES C- FULLEi. JR.

: YVONNE VIMIi
roHN w. GRESHAM Hon. William Brad.ford Reynolds
::XT:j:":" Assistant Artorney eenerl].
-E'L,EJ..*.NNER Civil Rights Division

United States Department of Justice
Washington, D. C.20530

I{r. Gerald t{. Jones, Chief
Voting Section
Uni ted States Department of Justi-ce
Washington, D. C. 20530

Re: Submissions of L967 Amendments to theConstitution of the State of NorthCarolina for pre-Clearance Under

Dear Messrs. Reynolds and, Jones:

On September 16, 1981, in the
lawsuitNorth Carolina filed a

black voters
class action

LER. P.A.

State of
in the

vs-v4Afrq, .\slsfylL !).LVJ-sr(JIl.

9l:-t:M". of rhe lawsuir was ro restraii trre i6i;_mentati-on and, enforcement of certain "*""a*""t=;;a;in L967 to the North carolina constitution insorai-isthe amendrnents applied to counties of the state coveredby 55 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965r &s amended.

These amendments were, in 1967 and 19Gg, d.esignated. asArticle If, 54 and Article II, 56. (The sections aredesignated in the present North caroiina constitution
-a? Art. II, 53 and Art. II, S5.) The amendments pro-hibit the divisi-on of counties in the delineation ofelection d.istricts for erections to the two houses ofthe North Carolina General Assembly.

Tlg prr=pose and effect of the 1967 amendments were todilute minority voting strength and, thereby prevent theelection of minority iand.idaies. Nunerous in-aivid.uarsand. organizations i-ntend to present their "uj".ii""= t"any pre-clearance by your Department of these amend:nents.we understand that some groups have already forward.ed. toygy_their protests. we assume that the Juitice oepirtmentwiII, in the name of justice and accord.in; t;-it"-iegura-tions, afford these oiganizations and ind.ividuals suffi-cient time to present itreir oUjections.



Hon. William Bradford Reynolds
I,lr. Gerald W. Jones

October 22, 1981
Page fwo

In any event, we do not expect the Department toact at the political behest of the State of North
Carolina, and thereby violate federal Iaw, by
acting to preclude the occurrence of a meaningful
opportr^rnity for the protesting groups and individ-
uals to present their objections in a fair and
timely manner

Mr. steve suitts, Executive Director of the southern
Regional Council, has provided me with a copy ofyour Augrust 24, 1981 letter to him in which you
state that:

Our record.s ind,icate that on April
20, L97L, the Attorney General precleared
all sections of the North Carolina
Constitution as revised in 19G9, with
to which an objection was interposed.

The facts stated in this letter are wrong and have
been admitted. to be so by both the Attorney General
of the State of North Carolina and. the Secretary-
Director of the North Carolina State Board of
Electi-ons in a sworn affidavit and a memorandum
filed in the Uni-ted States District Court for the
Eastern District of North carolinai nateign Division,in the above action. I am enclosing for lour in-rormation a copy of the affidavit by Alex K. Brock,the Secretary-Director of the State Board of
Elections.

in his affid.avit, Mr. Brock swears, af-ter first
stating that he has been secretary-Director since
Augrust 5, l-965 and. was serving in that capacity in
L967 when the 1967 amend.ments were adopted andmodified, that:

5. As best I recaIl, I did not deem
these amend.ments to the State Constitution
to be subject to the subrnission require-
ment.s of 55 of the Voting Rights Act of
1965, at the tj-me of their adoption, and
therefore, I did not submit the. amendments
to the Attorney General of the United States



Hon. William Bradford Reynold,s
Mr. Gerald W. Jones

October 22, 1981
Page Three

for approval or seek their approval by
the United States District Court for
the District of Coh:rnbia;

Moreover, the Attorney General of the'State, in his
Ir{emorandum of Mootness admits the failure and
merely pleads that it was excusable on the ground
that "Failure of the State to srrbmit these con-
stitutional provisions for approval Pursuant to
55 of the Votj-ng Rights Act was at least und.er-
stand.able. "

Furthermore, the lega1 papers filed by the Attorney
General of North Carolina states definitively
that "the State chooses not to contest plaintiffs'
contention that these provisions should have been
submitted. "

The above demonstrates that there is no rational
basis for your tentative conclusj-on that the L967
amendments, which are the subject of this letter,
have been previously cleared by your Department.

In addi-tion to the above, there is a more serious
reason why these amendments cannot be deemed to
have been precleared by you when your Department,
on April 20, L97L, precleared sections of tiie North
Carolina Constitution as revised in 1969. That
reason is made apparent by the Report of the North
Carolina State Constitution St Cslruql-ss1on , p. 30
(1958), the Editors' Notes on the L969 Revision of
the Constitution, and a September 24, 1981 memoran-
dum by John Sanders (excerpts of which are attached),
submitted by the Attorney General of North Carolina
in his Memorandum of Mootness.

The Report of the Study Commission, supra, talks
about both the L967 amendments (ratified in 1968)
and the 1959 amendments (ratified in 1970 and
approved. by you in 1971). The latterr a's the Report,
*Era, makes clear, was merely a set of revisions
of the former. The Report states that:



Hon. William Bradford. Reynold.sMr. Gerald W. Jones
October 22, 1991

Page I'our

the provisions governing apportionmentof the two houses, adopted-6y the peoplei-n November, 1969, have been broughtforward in the proposed, text with nosubstantj.ve change. ,, Report, p. 30.
I4oreover, as Mr. Sanders makes clear in his memo_rand,um, the 1969 amend,ments ,,mad.e onfy very minorchanges in the provisions of Articre-ir of theconstitution dealing !'rith the 

"pporiionment ofthe Senate and House of Reipr"""irl"ii;;; " ( see'attached).

rn view of the above, it is crear that the changesapproved by your Department in 1971 with ,"=p".i
Ih;-;5;Jription,

-a c etrnnar.l-al l^--as supported by representations of the state of
cli?qes irom rhe 116 ena*ents to6ffimend-
Ti"t:.ffissue or whlther rhe."-;;;;-;;;$ il'.f;!'iil;
31?i$:1ts. yfich were d,ifferenr from rhose in rhe

This view is further confirmed by the introd.uctoryEdi.tors' Notel !" tlr: present Constituti_on of theffi carolin; ,iG-r;;il;';; rhe present

prior Constitution of the State.

State Colstitr:ticn. Those Notes stlte that:
Session L9y" L969, c. i-ZSg proposeda eomplete editorial revision 6f tfreConstituticn of North Caro1ina, to besubmitted, to the gualified voters of theS+-ate at the I97O general electj.on. Therevi.sed Constitution was aaopted ty voteof- the people at the general elect-ion

?:19 Nov' 3, 1970, to take effect July 1,
LJIL.

At best, there were only edi-torial revisicns sub-mitted to you for approvat in L}TL and. those re_visions were s.bmitled on the ,orrir,g assumption,



shared by you and. the state, that the revisionsconstituted no chb.nge from the then pre-existing
L967 amendments. At no time, therefbre, haveyou ever been presented with an opportunity toconsider whether the changes aaopiEa Uy thar,egislature in Lg67 to the state const]_tution
and ratified uy th9 people of the state in 196g,had'.the purpose and effect of d,iruting minority'voting strength and othe:rrrise d.iscriminatinl- -'against minority voters and citizens.
To regard your 1971 approval of the 1969 amend_ments as tantamount to approval of the L|GTconstitutionar Amendment, would thus present agrave lega1 crisis concerning the proper admin-istration and implementatj-on of S5:

A""ordirgly, ," do hop" th.t yo, ,i11 ,."or"id.,
disclosures of this 1etter.

Hon. William Bradford Reynolds
Mr. Gerald W. Jones

October 22, 1981
Page Five

Respectful ly subruitted,ai/ll-Cl /'furyJ* b,l/4/l-,-
Julius f,evonne ChamberJ
Leslie Wi-nner
Chambers, I'erguson, Watt, Wallas,

Ad.kins & f'uller
951 S. Independence plaza
Charlotte, North Carolina 29202
704/37s-8451

JACK GREENBERG
JAI(ES M. NABRTT, rII
NAPOLEON B. WILI,IA}IS, JR,.
I,AT{I GUINIER

10 Columbus Circle
Suite 2030
New York, New york 10019
2L2/s85-8397