Source: http://www.chanrobles.com/usa/us_supremecourt/500/646/case.php
Timestamp: 2020-01-28 00:51:14
Document Index: 712956853

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 1973', '§ 1973', '§ 5', '§ 1973', '§ 2', '§ 2', '§ 5', '§ 5', '§ 5', '§ 5', '§ 5', '§ 5', '§ 5', '§ 5']

US Supreme Court Decisions - On-Line> Volume 500 > CLARK V. ROEMER, 500 U. S. 646 (1991)
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751 F.Supp. 586 (M.D.La.1990), reversed and remanded. chanrobles.com-redchanrobles.com-red
The Voting Rights Act of 1965, 42 U.S.C. § 1973 et seq., contains two major provisions governing discrimination in election practices. Section 2 addresses existing election procedures. It prohibits procedures that "resul[t] in a denial or abridgement of the right of any citizen of the United States to vote on account of race or color. . . ." § 1973(a). Section 5 governs changes in voting procedures. In order to prevent changes that have a discriminatory purpose or effect, § 5 requires covered jurisdictions, such as Louisiana, to obtain preclearance by one of two methods before implementing new voting practices. § 1973c. Through judicial preclearance, a covered jurisdiction may obtain from the United States District Court for the District of Columbia a declaratory judgment that the voting change "does not have the purpose and chanrobles.com-redchanrobles.com-red
On August 15, 1990, the District Court presiding over the § 2 case enjoined the State from holding elections in 11 judicial districts which it determined violated § 2. Some of these judicial districts were also at issue in the § 5 portion of the case. On September 28, 1990, the three-judge District Court presiding chanrobles.com-redchanrobles.com-red
In an October 22 order and an October 31 opinion, the three-judge District Court made its final pronouncement on the status of the unprecleared judgeships. The court divided the unprecleared electoral changes into two categories. Category one involved at-large judgeships in districts where, for the most part, the State had obtained administrative preclearance for later-created judgeships. The three-judge District Court held that, despite his current objections, the Attorney General had precleared the earlier judgeships when he precleared the later, or related, voting changes. For example, the First Judicial District Court in Caddo Parish has a number of judgeships, called Divisions, subject to § 5. Louisiana submitted and obtained approval for Divisions E (created chanrobles.com-redchanrobles.com-red
On October 29, 1990, appellants filed an emergency application in this Court to enjoin the November 6 and December 8 elections pending appeal. On November 2, we granted the application in part and enjoined the elections for the judgeships that the District Court conceded were uncleared. Clark v. Roemer, 498 U.S. 953, modified, 498 U.S. 954 (1990). We did not overturn the District Court's refusal to chanrobles.com-redchanrobles.com-red
Section 5 requires States to obtain either judicial or administrative preclearance before implementing a voting change. A voting change in a covered jurisdiction "will not be effective as la[w] until and unless cleared" pursuant to one of these two methods. Connor v. Waller, 421 U. S. 656 (1975) (per curiam). See also United States v. Board of Supervisors of Warren County, 429 U. S. 642, 429 U. S. 645 (1977) ("No new voting practice or procedure may be enforced unless the State or political subdivision has succeeded in its declaratory judgment action or the Attorney General has declined to object"). Failure to obtain either judicial or administrative preclearance "renders the change unenforceable." Hathorn v. Lovorn, 457 U. S. 255, 457 U. S. 269 (1982). If voting changes subject chanrobles.com-redchanrobles.com-red
The other reasons for the District Court's decision lack merit as well. The District Court maintained that the applicability of § 5 to judges was uncertain until our summary affirmance in Brooks v. Georgia State Board of Elections, 775 F.Supp. 1470, aff'd, 498 U.S. 916 (1990). But in Haith v. Martin, 618 F.Supp. 410 (EDNC 1985), aff'd mem., 477 U.S. 901 (1986), we issued a summary affirmance of a decision holding that § 5 applied to judges. Nor did the District Court's vague concerns about voter confusion and low voter turnout in a special election for the unprecleared seats justify its refusal to enjoin the illegal elections. Voters may be more confused and inclined to avoid the polls when an election is held chanrobles.com-redchanrobles.com-red
We need not decide today whether there are cases in which a District Court may deny a § 5 plaintiff's motion for injunction and allow an election for an unprecleared seat to go forward. An extreme circumstance might be present if a seat's unprecleared status is not drawn to the attention of the State until the eve of the election and there are equitable principles chanrobles.com-redchanrobles.com-red
McCain involved a 1966 South Carolina statute establishing a three-member county council elected at large by all county voters and requiring candidates to reside in and run from one of three residency districts. The State failed to preclear the 1966 statute. In 1971, the State amended the statute to increase the number of residency districts and county council members from three to five, and submitted the new Act for preclearance. Based on a request by the Attorney General for additional information, South Carolina also submitted a copy of the 1966 Act. The Attorney General declined to interpose any objection "to the change in question." Id. at 465 U. S. 241. In a later § 5 challenge to the 1966 changes, a District Court held that the Attorney General's request for additional information indicated that he considered and approved all aspects of the electoral scheme subject chanrobles.com-redchanrobles.com-red
Id. at 465 U. S. 256. chanrobles.com-redchanrobles.com-red
The District Court's explanation for its holding replicates the precise factual and legal errors we identified in McCain. Its ruling that preclearance "not only approves the amended portion of the new act, but necessarily approves the older, reenacted part, which forms part of the new act" is inconsistent with McCain. McCain establishes a presumption that the Attorney General will review only the current changes in election practices effected by the submitted legislation, not prior unprecleared changes reenacted in the amended legislation. chanrobles.com-redchanrobles.com-red
465 U.S. at 465 U. S. 247, Congress required each jurisdiction subject to § 5, as a condition to implementation of a voting change subject to the Act, to identify, submit, and receive approval for all such changes. The District Court's holding upsets this ordering of responsibilities under § 5, for it would add to the Attorney General's already redoubtable obligations the additional duty chanrobles.com-redchanrobles.com-red