Opinion ID: 551345
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Findings of Intent

Text: 21 We therefore turn to the appellants' challenge to the district court's rulings with respect to the intent of the supervisors in 1981. The County contends that the district court did not make sufficient findings on intentional discrimination. Focusing on language in Finding 177, quoted supra in note 1, the County claims that the district court found only that the supervisors in 1981 intended to perpetuate their own incumbencies. This is a mistaken reading of what the district court found. Although the court noted that the Supervisors appear to have acted primarily on the political instinct of self-preservation, the court also found that they chose fragmentation of the Hispanic voting population as the avenue by which to achieve this self-preservation. Finding No. 181. The supervisors intended to create the very discriminatory result that occurred. That intent was coupled with the intent to preserve incumbencies, but the discrimination need not be the sole goal in order to be unlawful. See Arlington Heights v. Metropolitan Housing Dev. Corp., 429 U.S. 252, 97 S.Ct. 555, 50 L.Ed.2d 450 (1977). Accordingly, the findings of the district court are adequate to support its conclusion of intentional discrimination, and the detailed factual findings are more than amply supported by evidence in the record. 22 Even where there has been a showing of intentional discrimination, plaintiffs must show that they have been injured as a result. Although the showing of injury in cases involving discriminatory intent need not be as rigorous as in effects cases, some showing of injury must be made to assure that the district court can impose a meaningful remedy. 23 That intent must result, according to the Voting Rights Act, in the 24 political processes leading to nomination or election ... [not being] equally open to participation by members of a [protected] class ... in that its members have less opportunity than other members of the electorate to participate in the political process and to elect representatives of their choice. 25 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1973(b). This language is echoed in the intentional discrimination case of White v. Regester, 412 U.S. 755, 93 S.Ct. 2332, 37 L.Ed.2d 314 (1973). There, in addition to intent, the Supreme Court required proof that the political processes leading to nomination and election were not equally open to participation by the group in question--that its members had less opportunity than did other residents in the district to participate in the political processes and to elect legislators of their choice. Id. at 766, 93 S.Ct. at 2339. See also Whitcomb v. Chavis, 403 U.S. 124, 149, 91 S.Ct. 1858, 1872, 29 L.Ed.2d 363 (1971). 26 Applying that standard to this case of intentional discrimination, we agree with the district court that the supervisors' intentional splitting of the Hispanic core resulted in a situation in which Hispanics had less opportunity than did other county residents to participate in the political process and to elect legislators of their choice. We conclude, therefore, that this intentional discrimination violated both the Voting Rights Act and the Equal Protection Clause.C. Laches 27 The County claims that, because four rounds of elections have occurred since the 1981 reapportionment plan was instituted, and because a regular reapportionment is scheduled to occur in 1991, the plaintiffs' claim for redistricting relief is barred on the ground of laches. It argues that substantial hardship will result from a redistricting now, when another regularly scheduled one is set to occur so closely on its heels. Furthermore, the County contends that the plaintiffs had no excuse for their delay in bringing suit. Therefore, it concludes, the suit should have been dismissed. 28 Although plaintiffs could have filed an action as early as 1981 in order to enhance their ability to influence the result in a district in which they were then still a minority, their failure to do so does not constitute laches. The record here shows that the injury they suffered at that time has been getting progressively worse, because each election has deprived Hispanics of more and more of the power accumulated through increased population. Because of the ongoing nature of the violation, plaintiffs' present claim ought not be barred by laches.