Opinion ID: 1151125
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Hispanic Districts in Los Angeles

Text: (4) MALDEF complains that the Masters' plans failed to provide adequate numbers of Hispanic districts in Los Angeles. Yet for central and eastern Los Angeles County, the Masters' plans create six majority Hispanic assembly districts, three such senate districts, and four such congressional districts. (These figures are consistent with those that would result from the plans proposed by MALDEF.) Other new districts likewise include substantial numbers of Hispanics. The focus of MALDEF's criticism is on Assembly Districts 45 and 46, Senate District 22, and Congressional District 30, all located in downtown Los Angeles and the Westlake area immediately to the west. Each of these districts contains more than 60 percent Hispanic population (and more than 84 percent total minority population). Unlike MALDEF's proposed plans, the Masters' plans also attempt to accommodate and maximize Asian interests in the area. At oral argument, Asian representatives praised the Masters' configuration of Senate District 22 and Congressional District 30, and objected to Assembly Districts 45 and 46 only because the Masters split the Asian population in the Westlake area. As the Masters explain in their Report (pp. 776-777, infra ), this split, and indeed the formation of each of these challenged districts, represent a compromise of the various minority interests in the area.