Opinion ID: 773533
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Meeting Gingles: Effect on Totality of the Circumstance Analysis and Dilution Finding

Text: 57 Although the district court articulated factual grounds upon which it decided each of the factors in its totality of the circumstance analysis, Wilson asserts that the court erred in finding that Mississippi's electoral districts for public service and transportation commissioners, as currently configured, do not dilute the voting strength of the state's African-American citizens. He cites the following language to support his position: 58 [I]t will be only the very unusual case in which the plaintiffs can establish the existence of the three Gingles factors but still have failed to establish a violation of § 2 under the totality of circumstances. In such cases, the district court must explain with particularity why it has concluded, under the particular facts of that case, that an electoral system that routinely results in white voters voting as a bloc to defeat the candidate of choice of a politically cohesive minority group is not violative of § 2 of the Voting Rights Act. 59 Clark I, 21 F.3d at 97. Therefore, after the district court found that he established the Gingles preconditions to a vote dilution claim, Wilson argues that the evidence should have demonstrated similar findings under the district court's totality of the circumstances analysis. 60 The United States Supreme Court addressed the relationship between the Gingles and totality of the circumstances inquiries of the two-step section 2 vote dilution claim in Johnson v. DeGrandy, 512 U.S. 997, 114 S. Ct. 2647, 129 L. Ed. 2d 775 (1994). Fordice notes that the Court emphatically rejected the suggestion that courts can rely solely on the three Gingles preconditions to establish a Section 2 dilution violation or to view less critically the totality of the circumstances if those preconditions have been satisfied in a particular case. See id. at 1011-12. The Court reasoned that Congress intended ultimate conclusions about equality or inequality of opportunity . . . to be judgments resting on comprehensive, not limited, canvassing of relevant facts. Id. at 1011. As such, the Court admonished that fact finders cannot rest uncritically on assumptions about the force of the Gingles factors in pointing to dilution. Id. at 1013. This court has previously recognized and applied the reasoning of Johnson. See Teague v. Attala County, 92 F.3d 283, 287 (5th Cir. 1996)(stating that even if the plaintiffs satisfy the Gingles prerequisites, the district court must still look to the 'totality of the circumstances' to determine whether the challenged electoral system is equally open to minority voters). 61 Wilson correctly relies on Clark I to contend that the district court, after having found that he met the Gingles preconditions, was required to explain with particularity why it concluded that the contested electoral districts, which routinely result in white bloc voting, do not violate Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. We find that the district court met this requirement. In summary, the district court found that, although Mississippi has an undeniable history of official discrimination from which its African-American citizens still suffer the effects, Wilson failed to demonstrate that this reality hindered the ability of Mississippi's African-American citizens to participate effectively in the state's political process. Moreover, the court determined that the factors of majority vote requirement, the size of the contested electoral districts, candidate slating, responsiveness, and tenuousness did not favor Wilson. The record before us supports the district court's determinations regarding these factors. As such, we cannot conclude that these findings were clearly erroneous. 62 Finally, the paucity of proof that Wilson presented regarding minority electoral success was inadequate to convince the district court that this factor favored a finding of vote dilution. As previously discussed, although Fifth Circuit precedent unequivocally states that evidence from elections for the office at issue is more probative than that of exogenous elections, e.g., Clark II, 88 F.3d at 1397, it does not bar limited consideration of exogenous elections. See Rangel, 8 F.3d at 247. Accordingly, the district court was well within its authority to consider the elections of Anderson and Banks as well as Murrell, McCrary, and Storey in its 'intensely local appraisal' of the social and political climate of the cities and counties in which Wilson filed the instant Section 2 suit. See LULAC IV, 999 F.2d at 867 (citing White v. Regester, 412 U.S. 755, 769, 93 S. Ct. 2332, 37 L. Ed. 2d 314 (1973)). Because the district court anchor[ed] its judgment in evidence[,] Clark II, 88 F.3d at 1397, we cannot declare implausible its conclusion that sufficient proof of minority electoral success exists to overcome Wilson's vote dilution claim. As such, in the instant dispute, irrespective of whether the district court correctly concluded that Wilson met the Gingles prerequisites, he ultimately failed to prove vote dilution under the totality of the circumstances. Therefore, the district court did not commit clear error in dismissing Wilson's Section 2 vote dilution claim.