Opinion ID: 1059272
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Race as the Predominant Factor

Text: Initially, we note that the complainants' factual premises supporting their contention that race was the predominate factor in drawing the districts are, in part, based on patterns gleaned from considering the redistricting plan as a whole. These factual premises are, first, the use of split precincts in majority minority districts was disproportional, placing minorities in the majority minority district rather than in the majority white district, and, because only racial data is available below the precinct level, these precincts were split based on race, not politics. Second, where majority African-American boundary precincts adjoined majority white precincts, the African-American precinct was consistently placed in the majority minority district rather than in the majority white district. This pattern again showed the use of race in designing the districts, according to the complainants. And finally, the complainants cited instances where white Democratic precincts were placed in the white majority district while the adjoining African-American Democratic precincts were placed in the majority minority district, thus, repeating a pattern of race-based behavior. Patterns of behavior of the nature recited above may add support to the conclusion that race was a predominate factor in drawing district lines but are not themselves dispositive of the issue. The challenges in this litigation are to specific districts, each of which must be considered on its own merits, and, to prevail with regard to any specific district the complainants must satisfy their burden of proof as to that district. We now turn to the trial court's determinations of racial gerrymandering assigned as error in this appeal.

Senate District 2 is a majority minority district comprised of parts of the Cities of Hampton and Newport News, and one majority African-American precinct each in Portsmouth and in Suffolk. The trial court found that to create this district the General Assembly crossed the Hampton Roads body of water, grabbing isolated minority precincts to make up for minority precincts it shed closer to the Newport News/Hampton core of the district. Crossing geographic and political boundaries in this manner was in utter disregard of traditional redistricting principles, according to the trial court. The complainants' evidence included maps and charts, along with expert testimony, showing the district's configuration, population by race, BVAP, and political voting patterns in the 1997 gubernatorial race. The complainants' expert also addressed the Langely precinct in Hampton which was split between Senate Districts 1 and 2. The portion of the precinct placed in Senate District 2 had a 36.2% BVAP, while the portion assigned to the white majority district, Senate District 1, had a 20.4% BVAP, thus showing that the division was based on race, according to the complainants. Finally, the complainants' expert also stated that there were several bordering precincts with relatively high concentrations of Democrats and low concentration of African Americans that are excluded from the District. He concluded that placing the African American Democratic precincts in the majority minority District 2 rather than the white Democratic precincts, further showed that race, not politics, was the predominant factor in drawing the district boundaries. While much of this evidence is reflected in the trial court's conclusions, little, if any, of the defendants' evidence supporting other reasons for the design of Senate District 2 is noted. The defendants' evidence showed that Senate District 2 was under-populated by approximately 15% and thus needed an additional 27,000 people to meet the district population requirement. The addition of the Suffolk and Portsmouth precincts added approximately 23,000 people. A net increase of approximately 1,000 more people resulted from the removal of 47,000. Newport News residents in the northern part of the district and the addition of approximately 48,000 residents of Hampton located immediately adjacent to the 1991 district. The portion of Newport News removed from District 2 was connected by water, not land, to the remainder of the old district. The resulting change in the contours of District 2 increased its compactness under both the perimeter and geographic dispersion measurements when compared to the 1991 district. Finally, the racial profiles of the exchanged areas were similar. The defendants' evidence also showed that the changes made the District more Democratic because the removed portion of Newport News had a higher percentage of Republican voters than the added portions of Hampton, Portsmouth, and Suffolk. Although the complainants asserted that adjacent white precincts with high concentrations of Democrats were intentionally left out of District 2, their exhibits showed that those precincts voted less than 50% Democratic in the 1997 gubernatorial race. Filially, the complainants' expert, Dr. Allan J. Licthman, testified that he did not independently look at compactness in analyzing the challenged districts, did not analyze the districts for contiguity or communities of interest, and did not consider incumbency interests as part of his analysis. Based on this record we conclude that the complainants did not meet their evidentiary burden of showing that race was the predominant factor in drawing Senate District 2. Evidence of the enhanced compactness, contiguity, and population equality of the District, the increased size of the Democratic voter population of the District, and the failure of the complainants' expert to consider significant traditional redistricting principles adopted by the General Assembly as criteria for use in its redistricting process undermines the trial court's conclusion. Furthermore, the record shows that the section of the Newport News area shed, according to the trial court, was not contiguous to the old district except by water and was not similar in racial makeup to the added Suffolk and Portsmouth precincts. The added portions of Hampton were, however, similar in BVAP to the Suffolk and Portsmouth precincts. Finally, complainants' evidence that majority minority precincts were included in District 2 while bordering majority white precincts were retained in majority white districts does not compel the conclusion that race was the predominant design factor when considered in conjunction with the evidence as a whole. Creating a majority minority district mandates placing minorities in that district and there is no dispute that race was a factor in drawing the district. Similarly, a single split precinct, one of only 15 split precincts in SB 1, with 1,375 African Americans unevenly divided between a white majority district and this majority minority district is insufficient to show that race was the predominant factor in designing the split of this precinct or the district itself. Legislatures must balance competing redistricting criteria in creating electoral districts. This record contains substantial evidence that the General Assembly implemented a number of traditional principles of redistricting in creating Senate District 2 and, accordingly, does not support the conclusion that race predominated in the design of the district. Accordingly, we will reverse the trial court's judgment that Senate District 2 violated Article I, §§ 1 and 11.
The trial court also held that the General Assembly subordinated traditional redistricting principles to race in creating Senate Districts 5, 9, 16, and 18. The sole basis cited for this conclusion was the trial court's finding that the General Assembly placed more minority voters in a district than necessary to provide such voters with a reasonable opportunity to elect candidates of their choice, and, therefore, that the districts were not narrowly tailored in a manner reasonably necessary to comply with the federal requirements. However, the issue of narrow tailoring is part of the strict scrutiny test, a test not applicable until after a determination is first made that race was the predominant factor in drawing the district. Here, the trial court made no specific factual findings and cited no evidence relative to any of these districts in support of its conclusion that race was the predominant factor in designing each district. The evidence produced by the complainants to meet their initial burden of proof regarding Senate District 5 involved Dr. Licthman's testimony comparing border precincts and his conclusion the district was drawn based on race because African-American border precincts were placed within the majority minority district and white majority border precincts were not. The complainants' expert described the design of the district as having a boot, looping lines, a tail, and artificial peninsulas, all for the purpose of picking off', or capturing African-American precincts and avoiding white precincts. The defendants' evidence showed that Senate District 5 was under-populated by 33,320 people. In adding population, over 97% of the district's core was retained, the district improved its compactness by the geographic dispersion method but decreased in perimeter compactness, and the BVAP decreased by approximately 4%. Finally, with two exceptions, the areas added to the District reflected Democratic voting patterns in excess of 50%. The evidence produced by the complainants on this issue for the remaining Senate districts, Senate Districts 9, 16, and 18, follows a similar pattern to that offered regarding Senate District 5. As to each district, the complainants' expert described the design of these majority minority districts as dependent upon grabbing or picking up majority minority precincts while avoiding majority white precincts, resulting in such shapes as sickles and peninsulas. This expert also testified that in certain areas, white Democratic precincts were excluded from majority minority districts while adjacent majority minority precincts were included in such districts, leading to the conclusion that the districts were drawn on the basis of race, not politics. However, the complainants' expert also testified that in his analysis he had not considered whether other traditional redistricting principles such as compactness and contiguity, communities of interest, or incumbency, were reflected in the design of these districts. The evidence produced by the defendants showed that these three Senate districts were all under-populated from a low of 9.9% to a high of 17%, requiring addition of population, that the redrawn districts were more compact by one or both of the objective tests used, and that the BVAP percentage declined with one exception where the BVAP rose from 56.5% to 58.5%. Finally, the defendants introduced maps and testimony regarding the political voting behavior in the challenged districts which showed a high correlation between race and voting patterns. We conclude that this record does not support the trial court's holding that race was the predominant factor in designing Senate Districts 5, 9, 16, and 18 for many of the same reasons recited in our conclusion regarding Senate District 2. Unquestionably, the complainants have shown that race was a factor in designing these majority minority districts. Indeed, to comply with the nonretrogression requirements of Section 5 of the VRA, race had to be a factor in drawing these districts. The defendants have never maintained otherwise. The record shows however, that these districts also were drawn with attention to such factors as population equalization, compactness and contiguity, retention of core districts where possible, and enhancement of communities of political interest. We conclude that the complainants did not meet their heavy burden to show that the General Assembly, in exercising its political judgment to balance competing interests, was motivated by racial considerations, and subordinated other traditional redistricting principles to that end in creating Senate Districts 5, 9, 16, and 18.

The City of Hampton is divided into three electoral districts: House Districts 91, 92, and 95. In District 92 and District 95, the Hampton precincts are joined with Newport News precincts. Hampton precincts are combined with the City of Poquoson and York County in District 91. Because Hampton's population of 146,437 could support two house electoral districts, [8] the trial court concluded that Hampton was needlessly divided into three districts against all traditional race-neutral principles. . . . The trial court's conclusion was based on the following findings. The boundary between House District 91 and House District 92 separated whites from African Americans, placing the African Americans in the majority minority District 92. This boundary included three split precincts which the court determined followed the pattern of placing African Americans in the majority minority district. [9] The trial court also found that minority candidates were unopposed or won election in House District 92 with over 70% of the votes with a BVAP of 59.3%. The remaining African-American precincts in Hampton were placed in House District 95 along with heavily African-American precincts from Newport News. The western border of House District 95 abuts a majority white district, House District 94, and the adjoining white precincts were placed in District 94 and the African-American precincts in District 95. As in District 92, the trial court found that the minority candidate was elected by landslide votes with a BVAP of 59%. [10] The defendants' evidence showed that Hampton had been split into more than two districts prior to the enactment of SB 1: former House Districts 91, 92, and 95. Both former Districts 92 and 95 were approximately 15% below the target population, and former District 91 was 8.5% below that target. The underpopulation was addressed by adding the rest of the City of Poquoson and part of York County to these districts. While the area encompassed by House District 91 only retained 57% of the previous district, House Districts 95 and 92 retained 93.5% and 95.2%, respectively, of their core. The defendants' evidence also showed that the voting behavior of the districts correlated highly with race. The majority of the Democratic voters were retained in House Districts 92 and 95. The Hampton precincts included in the white majority District 91 were less Democratic than the neighboring Hampton precincts retained in the majority minority District 92. The evidence also showed that the split of the Magruder precinct between House District 91 and 92 placed more African Americans in the majority minority House District 92 than in the majority white House District 91. This record establishes that the division of Hampton into 3 districts was not a new legislative decision, but followed a three-way division that existed for at least a decade. The evidence shows that, the redistricting principles of population equality, partisan voting behavior, and avoiding retrogression all played a part in designing these two districts. As we have said before, the complainants bear a heavy burden in successfully challenging the constitutionality of these legislative acts. We find that this record does not support the trial court's conclusion that race was the predominant factor in designing House Districts 92 and 95.
In holding that House District 74 was racially gerrymandered in violation of Article I, §§ 1 and 11, the trial court cited the shape of the district including a 20 mile land bridge, and the lack of community of interest between the African Americans in rural Charles City County and those in urban northern Henrico and the Hopewell portion of the district. The trial court concluded that the grabbing of small, isolated minority communities in Charles City County and the two precincts in the City of Hopewell in order to `preserve' a majority-minority district with a population having no common traditional, economic, or community of interests with Henrico, amounted to the suspect use of race as a proxy to further the neighboring incumbents interests. Finally, the trial court observed that if avoiding retrogression was the General Assembly's goal, it could have created four compact, politically cohesive majority-minority districts in the Richmond, Henrico, and Chesterfield area. The defendants produced evidence showing that the 1991 district was basically replicated in HB 1. Although District 74 was below the target population for a house district, 98.3% of District 74 was retained while adding the requisite population. The new district was more compact than the old, and its BVAP declined from 65.1% to 59.7%. The defendants' evidence also showed that the incumbent representative in the neighboring district, District 62, was a Republican. Removing the strongly Democratic Hopewell precincts from District 62 made that district a safer district for the incumbent. Finally, the maps presented by both the complainants and the defendants showed that the land bridge between the Henrico and Charles City County portion of the district consisted of the precincts with the fewest Republican voters. Based on this record, we conclude that the trial court erred in determining that race was the predominant factor in creating District 74. The record shows that race was a factor in designing the district along with traditional redistricting principles of retaining core areas, population equality, compactness and contiguity, partisan voting behavior, and protection of incumbents. The record does not support the conclusion that any of these factors were subordinated to race. Accordingly, we conclude that the trial court erred in holding that House District 74 was racially gerrymandered.
The trial court also concluded that the majority minority House Districts 69, 70, 71, 77, 80, 89, and 90 violated Article I, § 11. The only evidence cited in support of this conclusion was election results for these districts showing that, with the exception of seven races, minority candidates received 74% or more of the votes in each election. The BVAP in these districts ranged from 53% to 64%, and, therefore, the court concluded that the districts were packed, meaning that they were not narrowly tailored to meet the requirements of federal law. As stated above, whether districts were narrowly tailored to comply with federal requirements is a consideration not raised until the requisite finding of racial predominance is first made. The trial court did not reference any specific evidence or make any specific findings for any of these districts to support a conclusion that race was the predominant factor in creating each district. It did, however, cite patterns it found in the creation of the districts that illustrated the subordination of the traditional redistricting principles to race. These patterns included excessive splitting of jurisdictional lines, general disregard for keeping regions intact, abandoning the constitutional requirements of compactness and contiguity, and an inordinate use of split precincts in majority minority districts. The trial court, however, did not identify any particular district in which these patterns occurred. We have already made clear that, in the absence of specific evidence in a specific district, such pattern evidence alone cannot sustain the trial court's finding of racial discrimination. We also note that the trial court's own holdings in this case belie its conclusion that matters of contiguity and compactness have been generally disregarded in creating the majority minority districts. Of the 23 House and Senate districts challenged under Article II, 6, the trial court found only six to be non-compact or non-contiguous. These numbers do not support a conclusion that these constitutional requirements were generally disregarded. Finally, the trial court cited the high percentage of split precincts in majority minority districts as evidence of race-based district line drawing. Specifically, the court found that the inclusion of 77% of the 61 precincts split statewide in the contested districts was not by coincidence or happenstance. However, other than those split precincts discussed above, the court fails to identify the location or specific impact of any other split precincts on the districts in question. The record contains little evidence other than maps or general charts with regard to House Districts 71, 89, and 90. Complainants' expert did not analyze these districts individually, and they are referenced in a single chart prepared by the complainants' expert to show that the Democratic party voting percentage is higher than the BVAP in those districts. The evidence adduced by the complainants to meet their initial burden of showing that race was the predominant factor in drawing these districts included testimony by their expert that in each district where African-American boundary precincts adjoined white precincts, the African-American precincts were placed in the majority minority district. This expert also cited three instances of split precincts in these districts that again placed more African Americans in the majority minority district. The complainants' witnesses also testified regarding the barbell, lobster, and foot with toes shapes of the districts which they contended resulted from the General Assembly's stretching districts to include African American precincts. The complainants also argued that the evidence showed that in creating District 69, the General Assembly drew boundaries that crossed the James River to include four precincts that were heavily African American but did not include adjoining white precincts that were also heavily Democratic, supporting the proposition that the district was drawn on the basis of race, not politics. The defendants' evidence included documents and testimony showing that the population in each of these districts was from 5% to 27% below the requisite level. In creating the revised districts, the General Assembly retained the substantial amounts of the districts' cores: 63% in District 69, 70% in District 70, 95% in District 77, and 90% in District 80. Of the three split precincts in these districts, the defendants' expert testified that two of the splits enhanced the compactness rating of the districts involved, Districts 69 and 77. The splitting of the third precinct, the Bellwood precinct, resulted in 18.7% African Americans placed in District 70, and 16.2% African Americans placed in the majority white precinct, a difference which complainants' expert agreed was statistically insignificant and would not support a strong inference of race-based line drawing. In response to the contention that white Democratic precincts were not included in majority minority District 69 while African American precincts were, maps presented by both the defendants and the complainants showed that the white precincts adjoining the four African-American precincts north of the James River in District 69, while voting Democratic, generally reflected a lower level of Democratic voting behavior than the four African-American precincts that were included in House District 69. Finally, with one exception, the BVAP in each district diminished. The BVAP in District 77 grew by a single percentage point, from 55% to 56%. We conclude that this record does not support the trial court's conclusion that being black was the predominant factor in being chosen as part of a population making up the majority-minority districts. As stated above, the use of race as a factor in designing these districts is conceded. This record shows that along with race, accommodations for population equality, incumbency, and political party voting patterns were made by the General Assembly.