Opinion ID: 528427
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Refusal to Reopen

Text: 9 Thornburg v. Gingles, 478 U.S. 30, 106 S.Ct. 2752, 92 L.Ed.2d 25 (1986), which interpreted the 1982 amendments to the Voting Rights Act, held that a violation may be proved by a showing of discriminatory effect alone. Id. at 35, 106 S.Ct. at 2758. 4 In order to prove that the multidistrict voting scheme impermissibly diluted minority voting strength, plaintiffs had to show that a bloc voting majority [is] usually ... able to defeat candidates supported by a politically cohesive, geographically insular minority group. Id. 478 U.S. at 49, 106 S.Ct. at 2766. The Court noted seven factors, the presence of which would tend to establish an impermissible scheme. 5 As a preliminary matter, however, plaintiffs had to show the existence of three threshold elements: (1) geographical compactness, (2) minority political cohesion, and (3) majority bloc voting. Id. at 50-51, 106 S.Ct. at 2766. As noted, the district court dismissed plaintiffs' case because it found they had failed to prove any of these elements. 10 Plaintiffs argue that, had they been given the opportunity to reopen, they would have presented further evidence on three issues: (1) the feasibility of redrawing city council district lines to create a single district in Pomona with a majority of black and Hispanic voters; (2) the political cohesiveness of minority voters; and (3) the impact of Pomona's at-large city council election system on the ability of minority voters to influence the election of preferred candidates. 11 A motion to reopen for additional proof is addressed to the sound discretion of the trial judge. Contempo Metal Furn. Co. v. East Texas Motor Freight Lines, 661 F.2d 761, 767 (9th Cir.1981); accord United States v. Kelm, 827 F.2d 1319, 1323 (9th Cir.1987). Although a change of law may warrant reopening a case where plaintiff wishes to present evidence pertinent to the new legal standard, a change that does not substantially affect the burden of proof and was reasonably anticipated by existing law will not warrant reopening. See Skehan v. Board of Trustees, 590 F.2d 470, 479 (3rd Cir.1978), cert. denied, 444 U.S. 832, 100 S.Ct. 61, 62 L.Ed.2d 41 (1979); 6A J. Moore, J. Lucas & G. Grotheer, Jr., Moore's Federal Practice p 59.04, at 33-34 (2d ed. 1987). Further, only reasonably genuine surprise, Moylan v. Siciliano, 292 F.2d 704, 705 (9th Cir.1961); see also Air et Chaleur, S.A. v. Janeway, 757 F.2d 489, 495 (2d Cir.1985), combined with a reasonably specific description of the additional evidence made relevant by the change in the law, cf. Berns v. Pan American World Airways, 667 F.2d 826, 829 (9th Cir.1982), will justify reopening. 12 We agree with the district court that Thornburg did not announce such a fundamental, unanticipated or sweeping change in the law as to warrant reopening plaintiffs' case. First, Thornburg did not substantially alter plaintiffs' burden of proof; it merely explained which of the Senate factors were most relevant in proving a section 2 violation. Two of the necessary preconditions, 478 U.S. at 50, 106 S.Ct. at 2766, discussed in Thornburg (minority group cohesion and majority bloc voting) were the component parts of one Senate factor--racially polarized voting. See Thornburg, 478 U.S. at 56, 106 S.Ct. at 2769 (The purpose of inquiring into the existence of racially polarized voting is twofold: to ascertain whether minority group members constitute a politically cohesive unit and to determine whether whites vote sufficiently as a bloc usually to defeat the minority's preferred candidates.). Even prior to Thornburg, proof of polarized voting, or [v]oting along racial lines, Rogers v. Lodge, 458 U.S. 613, 623, 102 S.Ct. 3272, 3279, 73 L.Ed.2d 1012 (1982), was one of the cornerstones of a section 2 claim. See, e.g., McMillan v. Escambia County, 748 F.2d 1037, 1043 (5th Cir.1984); United States v. Marengo County Comm'n, 731 F.2d 1546, 1566 (11th Cir.), appeal dismissed and cert. denied, 469 U.S. 976, 105 S.Ct. 375, 83 L.Ed.2d 311 (1984); Gingles v. Edmisten, 590 F.Supp. 345, 367, 374 (E.D.N.C.1984) (three-judge court), aff'd in part, rev'd in part sub nom. Thornburg v. Gingles, 478 U.S. 30, 106 S.Ct. 2752, 92 L.Ed.2d 25 (1986). 13 Thornburg, moreover, did not alter the statistical methods used to prove racially polarized voting. Both before and after Thornburg, plaintiffs, including plaintiffs in this case, utilized exit polls, ecological regression and homogeneous precinct analysis, and anecdotal testimony to show the existence of polarized voting. Thornburg merely confirmed what has been understood all along: proof of racially polarized voting is at the heart of any section 2 claim. 14 Plaintiffs clearly recognized this. Much of their proffered evidence was directed to showing that (a) blacks and Hispanics are politically cohesive and (b) that the minority's voting power was submerged by majority bloc voting. 6 Therefore, Thornburg's threshold requirements of minority political cohesion and majority bloc voting added nothing not already recognized by existing case law and the Senate factors. 15 Although Thornburg 's geographical compactness requirement was not among the enumerated Senate factors, see McNeil v. Springfield Park Dist., 851 F.2d 937, 942 (7th Cir.1988), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 109 S.Ct. 1769, 104 L.Ed.2d 204 (1989), its addition did not materially alter the burden of proving a section 2 claim. In fact, cases prior to Thornburg held that no section 2 claim could be brought unless plaintiffs demonstrated that the minority group was capable of forming a majority of voters in a single district. See, e.g., Latino Political Action Comm. v. City of Boston, 609 F.Supp. 739, 746-47 (D.Mass.1985), aff'd, 784 F.2d 409 (1st Cir.1986); Gingles v. Edmisten, 590 F.Supp. at 381 n. 3. 7 Plaintiffs have in fact attempted to show geographical compactness; they sought to prove that political cohesion of blacks and Hispanics together could comprise a majority in a proposed single-member city council district. 8 Moreover, plaintiffs offered alternative plans to show that existing precincts could be used to redraw districts to create a majority minority district. Because they attempted--albeit unsuccessfully--to demonstrate geographical compactness during their case-in-chief, plaintiffs cannot now claim surprise that Thornburg required such a showing. 16 Plaintiffs also contend that they should be afforded an opportunity to establish political cohesiveness by methods other than vote analysis of city elections, Motion to Re-Open Plaintiffs' Case-in-Chief, Romero v. City of Pomona, C.A. No. 85-3359 JMI(Gx) (Aug. 28, 1986) at 4. However, Thornburg certainly did nothing to change the methodology by which political cohesiveness could be proved. Moreover, plaintiffs have failed to indicate what new evidence they intended to introduce to prove the political cohesiveness of Pomona's minority voters. See Air et Chaleur, 757 F.2d at 495 (plaintiff must show surprise and explain nature of proposed additional evidence to warrant remand following district court denial of motion to reopen). 17 Finally, plaintiffs suggest that they should have been permitted to reopen their case so they could demonstrate that Pomona's at-large plan diminished the ability of minority voters to influence the outcome of city council elections. Their argument is based on footnote 12 of Thornburg, which states: 18 We have no occasion to consider whether Sec. 2 permits, and if it does, what standards should pertain to, a claim brought by a minority group, that is not sufficiently large and compact to constitute a majority in a single-member district, alleging that the use of a multimember district impairs its ability to influence elections. 19 478 U.S. at 46, 106 S.Ct. at 2764 (emphasis original). This language, which does nothing more than expressly leave open the question, did not change existing legal standards and therefore provides no basis for a motion to reopen. 20 Nor does Davis v. Bandemer, 478 U.S. 109, 106 S.Ct. 2797, 92 L.Ed.2d 85 (1986), decided the same day as Thornburg, support plaintiffs' claim. Davis involved a constitutional challenge to a districting plan, and therefore required proof of discriminatory intent. Id. at 140-42, 106 S.Ct. at 2814-15. Plaintiffs raised an equal protection claim at trial, which the district court rejected on the ground that plaintiffs failed to prove discriminatory purpose. Romero, 665 F.Supp. at 869. Plaintiffs do not challenge this finding on appeal. It was not an abuse of discretion for the district court to refuse to reopen under Davis where the plaintiffs had already tried but failed to prove discriminatory intent.III. Geographical Compactness 21 Plaintiffs contend that the district court misapplied Thornburg 's geographical compactness test by focusing on the number of blacks and Hispanics eligible to vote, rather than on total minority populations. They suggest that Thornburg established total minority population, rather than the population of eligible voters, as the proper standard for measuring geographical compactness in a single-member district. 9 Alternatively, they contend that, because blacks and Hispanics are politically cohesive, they should be considered in tandem for purposes of determining geographical compactness. 22 A. The district court held that only those individuals eligible to vote can be counted in determining whether a minority group can constitute a voting majority of a single-member district. Romero, 665 F.Supp. at 864. Applying this standard, the district court found that none of the districts proposed by plaintiffs 10 have majority Hispanic or black populations, once citizenship and voting age are considered 11 : After taking into consideration factors such as eligible voting age and citizenship, the evidence conclusively establishes that neither hispanics nor blacks can constitute a majority of the voters of any single member district. Id. 665 F.Supp. at 858. 12 23 Plaintiffs contend that the district court misread Thornburg, which, they argue, merely requires that plaintiffs demonstrate that the minority group constitute a majority of the total population in the single-member district. They are mistaken. Thornburg repeatedly makes reference to effective voting majorities, rather than raw population totals, as the touchstone for determining geographical compactness. 13 Indeed, the purpose of geographical compactness is to first determine whether minorities are capable of commanding a majority vote in a single-member district: 24 Unless minority voters possess the potential to elect representatives in the absence of the challenged structure or practice, they cannot claim to have been injured by that structure or practice. The single-member district is generally the appropriate standard against which to measure minority group potential to elect because it is the smallest political unit from which representatives are elected. Thus, if the minority group is spread evenly throughout a multimember district, or if, although geographically compact, the minority group is so small in relation to the surrounding white population that it could not constitute a majority in a single-member district, these minority voters cannot maintain that they would have been able to elect representatives of their choice in the absence of the multimember electoral structure. As two commentators have explained: 25 To demonstrate [that minority voters are injured by at-large elections], the minority voters must be sufficiently concentrated and politically cohesive that a putative districting plan would result in districts in which members of a racial minority would constitute a majority of the voters, whose clear electoral choices are in fact defeated by at-large voting. 26 478 U.S. at 50-51 n. 17, 106 S.Ct. at 2766 n. 17 (emphasis added) (brackets original) (quoting Blacksher & Menefee, From Reynolds v. Sims to City of Mobile v. Bolden: Have the White Suburbs Commandeered the Fifteenth Amendment?, 34 Hasting L.J. 1, 55-56 (1982)). 27 Cases before and after Thornburg acknowledge that a section 2 claim will fail unless the plaintiff can establish that the minority group constitutes an effective voting majority in a single-member district. See, e.g., McNeil, 851 F.2d at 945 (Because only minorities of voting age can affect this potential [to elect candidates of their choice], it is logical to assume that the Court intended the majority requirement to mean a voting age majority.); Latino Political Action Comm., 609 F.Supp. at 746-47 (rejecting section 2 claim where plaintiffs failed to establish that minority voters could constitute an effective voting majority in a single-member district); Gingles v. Edmisten, 590 F.Supp. at 381 (for purposes of determining minority vote dilution, effective voting majority appropriate standard). More recently, in Gomez v. City of Watsonville, 863 F.2d 1407 (9th Cir.1988), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 109 S.Ct. 1534, 103 L.Ed.2d 839 (1989), our assessment of geographical compactness was based upon the number of eligible minority voters, rather than total minority population. Id. at 1414 (presence of two districts where Hispanics would constitute a majority of the voters and would be able to elect representatives of their choice satisfies Thornburg's geographical compactness standard) (emphasis added). The district court was correct in holding that eligible minority voter population, rather than total minority population, is the appropriate measure of geographical compactness. 28 B. Alternatively, plaintiffs contend that, for the purpose of satisfying Thornburg 's geographical compactness requirement, Hispanics and blacks can be considered a politically cohesive minority coalition, because white voters tend to vote differently from blacks and Hispanics in Pomona. 14 This claim is foreclosed, however, by the district court's finding that blacks and Hispanics in Pomona are not politically cohesive. The district court's finding was based in part on the 1985 city council primary elections, in which plaintiffs' exit polls revealed that 60% of blacks voted against the Hispanic candidate for District 3, Tomas Ursua, and in favor of white candidates. That same exit poll revealed that 71% of all Hispanic voters cast their ballots in favor of the white opponents of Joseph Duncan, a black candidate for District 2. Romero, 665 F.Supp. at 858. Based as they are on substantial evidence, these findings must be given great deference. See Thornburg, 478 U.S. at 79, 106 S.Ct. at 2781 ([T]he application of the clearly-erroneous standard to ultimate findings of vote dilution preserves the benefit of the trial court's particular familiarity with the indigenous political reality without endangering the rule of law.). We therefore hold that the district court did not err in concluding that blacks and Hispanics were not politically cohesive and could not be combined to form a majority of the voters in any district. 15 29 Because plaintiffs must meet all three Thornburg preconditions in order to succeed on a section 2 claim, id. at 50-51, 106 S.Ct. at 2766; see, e.g., City of Carrollton Branch of NAACP v. Stallings, 829 F.2d 1547, 1550 (11th Cir.1987), cert. denied sub. nom. Duncan v. City of Carrollton, Georgia, Branch of NAACP, --- U.S. ----, 108 S.Ct. 1111, 99 L.Ed.2d 272 (1988); Collins v. City of Norfolk, 816 F.2d 932, 935 (4th Cir.1987); Buckanaga v. Sisseton Indep. School Dist., 804 F.2d 469, 471-72 (8th Cir.1986), we agree with the district court that plaintiffs' failure to show geographical compactness bars their section 2 claim. 16