Opinion ID: 386196
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Do the At-Large Electoral Systems Here Exist Because of Purposeful Discrimination?

Text: 17 Arlington Heights v. Metropolitan Housing Corp., 429 U.S. 252, 97 S.Ct. 555, 50 L.Ed.2d 450 (1977), teaches us that an inquiry into legislative purpose is not an easy one. Determining whether invidious discriminatory purpose was a motivating factor demands a sensitive inquiry into such circumstantial and direct evidence of intent as may be available. 429 U.S. at 266, 97 S.Ct. at 564. The Court suggests several possible evidentiary sources for such a determination. Among them are: (1) the historical background of the action, particularly if a series of actions have been taken for invidious purposes; (2) the specific sequence of events leading up to the challenged action; (3) any procedural departures from the normal procedural sequence; (4) any substantive departures from normal procedure, i. e., whether factors normally considered important by the decisionmaker strongly favor a decision contrary to the one reached; and (5) the legislative history, especially where contemporary statements by members of the decisionmaking body exist. 429 U.S. at 267-68, 97 S.Ct. at 564. 18 The Stewart opinion in Bolden held that the so-called Zimmer factors regarding discriminatory impact (see Zimmer v. McKeithen, 485 F.2d 1297 (5th Cir. 1973) (en banc), aff'd sub nom. East Carroll Parish School Board v. Marshall, 424 U.S. 636, 96 S.Ct. 1083, 47 L.Ed.2d 296 (1976)) were insufficient, standing alone, to support a finding of discriminatory purpose. Fortunately, the district court below correctly anticipated that the Arlington Heights requirement of purposeful discrimination must be met, and thus made explicit findings concerning intent in addition to and apart from its Zimmer findings. Accordingly, there is no need to remand the case for a determination of whether purposeful discrimination exists. See Arlington Heights v. Metropolitan Housing Corp., 429 U.S. 252, 272-73, 97 S.Ct. 555, 567, 50 L.Ed.2d 450 (White, J., dissenting).
19 The at-large system for electing county commissioners is mandated by a 1901 amendment to the Florida Constitution. Fla.Const., art. 8, § 5. There is considerable evidence that at about that time the white citizens of Florida adopted various legislative plans either denying blacks the vote entirely or making their vote meaningless. For example, Jim Crow laws were instituted in the early 1900's, the Democratic Party established the white primary 10 in 1900, and there was widespread disfranchisement of blacks. 11 20 Although many actions in the early 1900's had a clear invidious purpose, this court held in McGill v. Gadsden County Commission, 535 F.2d 277 (5th Cir. 1976), which also involved an at-large system mandated by the 1901 amendment to the Florida Constitution, that no racial motivation was behind the amendment. This, according to McGill and Dr. Shofner, the plaintiff's expert historian, is because there was such widespread disfranchisement of blacks by that time that they did not represent a political threat. Thus, relying upon McGill as reinforced by the conclusions of Dr. Shofner, the district court held that the at-large system for electing county commissioners was not adopted for discriminatory purposes. Based upon the evidence, this finding of the district court was not clearly erroneous and supported the court's conclusion. 21 Although the at-large system did not have its genesis in a purposeful attempt to exclude blacks from the political process, under the Stewart analysis in Bolden, invidious purpose in the operation of the plan will also invalidate it. 446 U.S. at 65, 100 S.Ct. at 1499. The district court held the at-large system for electing county commissioners is being perpetuated for invidious purposes. According to the district court, evidence of such an intent can be found in the fact that the County Commission has twice rejected the recommendations of its own charter government committees that the county change to single-member districts. 22 Four county commissioners testified at trial that race did not motivate their refusal to submit the issue of single-member districts to the electorate. Each stated that it was his personal belief that all voters of the county should be allowed to vote on each of the commissioners so the board would be more responsive to the needs of the community as a whole. Thus, the commissioners asserted good government reasons for perpetuation of the at-large system. 23 The district court held, however, that the purpose of perpetuating the present system was not legitimate. 24 In their post-trial memorandum, defendants admit that the rejection of the single-member district aspect of the charter proposal reflects the commissioners' desire to maintain their incumbency. This was also the court's impression at trial. Each of these commissioners had been elected in countywide elections. They could not know how they would fare in single district elections. Yet it is apparent that in such elections one or more of them might be replaced by blacks. 25 To this court the reasonable inference to be drawn from their actions in retaining at-large districts is that they were motivated, at least in part, by the possibility single district elections might result in one or more of them being displaced in subsequent elections by blacks. 26 That (the commissioners') motivations may be selfish rather than malicious toward blacks does not alter the conclusion that their intent was to continue the present dilution of black voting strength. The present at-large election system for county commissioners is being maintained for discriminatory purposes. 12 27 If the district court is correct in its conclusion that the at-large election system is being maintained for discriminatory purposes, then we must affirm its ultimate decision that the system is unconstitutional. 28 We have reviewed the testimony, however, and found no evidence of racial motivation by the county commissioners in retaining the at-large system. The trial court stressed defendant's statement in a post-trial memorandum that rejection of the charter proposal reflected the commissioners' desire to retain their incumbency. Retention of incumbency was never mentioned in the testimony. Moreover, in our view the desire to retain one's incumbency unaccompanied by other evidence ought not to be equated with an intent to discriminate against blacks qua blacks. The commissioners all testified that racial considerations played no role in their rejection of the charter proposal; the plaintiffs introduced no evidence to the contrary. The trial judge, of course, was entitled not to believe the commissioners' testimony; in the absence of contradictory evidence, however, disbelief of that testimony is not sufficient to support a contrary finding. See Moore v. Chesapeake and Ohio Railway, 340 U.S. 573, 576, 71 S.Ct. 428, 429, 95 L.Ed. 547 (1951). Therefore, the evidence falls short of showing that the appellants 'conceived or operated (a) purposeful (device) to further racial discrimination.'  446 U.S. at 66, 100 S.Ct. at 1499, quoting Whitcomb v. Chavis, 403 U.S. 124, 149, 91 S.Ct. 1858, 1872, 29 L.Ed.2d 363 (1971).
29 An at-large system for electing School Board members was established by state law in 1947. Fla.Stat. §§ 230.08, .10 (1975). The district court discussed the enactment of that law, and, applying the Arlington Heights criteria, found it to have been born from a desire to exclude blacks. 30 From 1907, 1907 Fla.Laws, ch. 5697, § 1, until 1945 there was clear support for single-member district elections for School Board members. During this period the primary elections for School Board members were conducted as single-member district elections, while the general elections were at-large. Because the all-white Democratic primary was tantamount to the election, from 1907 through 1945 the School Board was a de facto, if not de jure, single-member district body. Thus, in 1945 the clear policy of the citizenry of Escambia County was to favor single-member district elections for School Board members. 31 The 1945 decision in Davis v. State ex rel. Cromwell, 156 Fla. 181, 23 So.2d 85 (1945) (en banc), changed that, however, by declaring unconstitutional the white primary. In the very first legislative session following Davis, the legislature enacted statutes requiring at-large elections in both the primary, 1947 Fla.Laws, ch. 23726, § 7, and the general election, 1947 Fla.Laws, ch. 23726, § 9. 32 Looking at the change from single-member districts to at-large districts through Arlington Heights glasses, the conclusion that the change had an invidious purpose is inescapable. The specific sequence of events leading up to the decision mandates the conclusion that the citizens of Escambia County in 1945, with the demise of the white primary, were not going to take any chances on blacks gaining power and thus purposefully sought to dilute black voting strength through the use of an at-large system. Furthermore, the history of the county suggests a substantive policy which favored single-member districts for the election of School Board members. The abrupt, unexplained departure from that forty-year policy upon the heels of the white primary's demise justifies the district court's conclusion that the change was racially motivated. Accordingly, we concur in the statement of the district court that (t)he evidence of discriminatory motives behind the at-large requirements of the 1947 system is compelling. 33 There is recent evidence of community awareness that the effect of the at-large system is to dilute the voting strength of blacks, and evidence that the dilutive effect will be capitalized on by the white majority to keep the School Board responsive to them. In 1975 the School Board took a position favorable to black interests on the question of whether the nickname Rebel should continue to be used at Escambia County High School. 13 34 The district court found that, in at least partial retaliation against the Board for its decision on the issue, the legislative delegation introduced a bill to increase the size of the Board to seven members, to change from an elective to an appointive school superintendent, and to reduce the salaries of Board members. The bill as introduced had the unanimous support of the local delegation. 14 As is required by state law, a referendum election was held to present the bill to the Escambia County electorate for approval. The proposals to increase the size of the Board and to reduce members' salaries passed overwhelmingly, but the provision to change to an appointed superintendent was defeated. 15 35 It is impossible to know unequivocally what motivated the electorate to vote to increase the size of the School Board. However, the fact that an earlier referendum for such an increase failed by a two-to-one margin, in conjunction with the racially charged atmosphere at the time of the second referendum, strongly suggests the vote was racially motivated. The district court described the situation as follows: 36 The 1976 change in the school board's election system was avowedly to pack the board to make it more responsive to the white majority on a particular racially polarized issue.... This is a telling indication of the legislators' and community's recognition and use of the at-large system as a method of rendering black voters politically impotent to the desires of the white majority. 37 Dist.Ct.Order, p. 31. 38 The district court correctly held that the at-large system of electing School Board members was developed with a discriminatory purpose and is being utilized by the majority population for such a purpose. Accordingly, the district court was correct in holding the at-large system for electing School Board members unconstitutional. 16
39 In 1931 a council-manager form of government was instituted in Pensacola. As originally enacted, it provided for ten council members: five were elected from single-member wards and five were elected at-large but with a ward residency requirement. 40 In 1955, a black ran a very close race against a white for one of the single-member district seats. There was testimony that when the council next reapportioned the wards, it purposefully gerrymandered that ward to increase its percentage of whites. Furthermore, three years later, the council asked the local legislative delegation to change the law so that all the council members would run at-large. A man who served on the city council at that time testified at trial, and the following colloquy occurred: 41 THE COURT: And the reason for that change (to 10 at-large seats) was what? 42 A. Was because then we wouldn't have this hassle of reapportioning to keep so many blacks in this ward and so many whites in that ward and keep the population in balance as to race. 43 (R. XVI-605). 44 Other evidence of an invidious purpose in changing those five single-member district seats to at-large seats came in testimony by then-Governor Reubin Askew. In 1959, Askew was a first-term state representative from Escambia County. He testified that he did not have a discriminatory motive in supporting the change to all at-large seats, testimony which was credited by the district court. He further testified that though he was unaware of the council members' motives generally, he was aware that one council member had indicated the change was wanted to avoid a salt and pepper council. 45 On the eve of the referendum election at which the change to all at-large seats was at issue, an editorial in the Pensacola Journal stated that there would be advantages to having all council members elected at-large. One reason is that small groups which might dominate one ward could not choose a councilman. Thus, one ward might conceivably elect a Negro councilman though the city as a whole would not. This probably is the prime reason behind the proposed change. 46 It is not easy for a court in 1981 to decide what motivated people in 1959. The series of events leading up to the current system of electing the city council of Pensacola, however, certainly suggests racial motivation. Furthermore, though not legislative history, editorials written contemporaneously with the action are probative evidence of the motivation of the action. 47 The district court found that (t)he conclusion of plaintiffs' expert historian that race was a concurrent motivating factor in the 1959 change is inescapable (footnote omitted). We agree.