Opinion ID: 1059272
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Senate Districts

Text: 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.