Opinion ID: 1151125
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Failure to Combine Separated Hispanic Populations

Text: MALDEF complains that the Masters' plans failed in several instances to combine into a single voting district certain separated Hispanic populations. As we previously explained, the Masters properly assumed that the Voting Rights Act would not require combining minority populations that are not functionally, geographically compact. ( Thornburg v. Gingles, supra, 478 U.S. 30, 50 [92 L.Ed.2d 25, 46].) For example, the Masters were unwilling to form a district requested by MALDEF linking Hispanic populations in Santa Barbara and Oxnard by means of a narrow connecting corridor around Ventura along a mountain range separating Ventura and Ojai. (See Report, p. 778, infra. ) The Masters have proposed several combinations of separated Hispanic populations where to do so would not conflict with the other reapportionment criteria, such as compactness, contiguity, and community of interests.