Opinion ID: 551345
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The County Appeal--Remedy

Text: 29
30 The County contends that the district court erred in requiring it to redistrict now, at a point between regularly scheduled decennial reapportionments. Citing Reynolds v. Sims, 377 U.S. 533, 84 S.Ct. 1362, 12 L.Ed.2d 506, reh'g denied, 379 U.S. 870, 85 S.Ct. 12, 13 L.Ed.2d 76 (1964), the County claims that decennial redistricting based upon census data is a rule, and that that case was intended to avoid the confusion that might be associated with more frequent reapportionments. 31 The County misreads Reynolds. The Court in Reynolds instituted a requirement of periodic reapportionment based upon current population data. It stated that decennial reapportionment would clearly meet the minimal requirements, and less frequent reapportionment would assuredly be constitutionally suspect. 377 U.S. at 583-84, 84 S.Ct. at 1393. The Court further noted, however, that while more frequent apportionment was not constitutionally required, it would be constitutionally permissible, and even practicably desirable. Id. Thus, Reynolds did not institute a constitutional maximum frequency for reapportionment; rather, it set a floor below which such frequency may not constitutionally fall.
32 The County further claims that the district court erred in considering any data other than data from the 1980 census. Since the 1980 census data does not suggest the possibility of creating a Hispanic majority district, the County claims that the plaintiffs must lose in their 1988 claim to redistrict to provide for such a district. This claim, too, misinterprets the case law on which it purports to rest. 33 Since Reynolds would permit redistricting between censuses, it appears to assume that post-census data may be used as a basis for such redistricting. Furthermore, in a subsequent opinion the Court noted with approval the possibility of using predictive data in addition to census data in designing decennial reapportionment plans. The court stated that [s]ituations may arise where substantial population shifts over such a period [the ten years between redistricting] can be anticipated. Where these shifts can be predicted with a high degree of accuracy, States that are redistricting may properly consider them. Kirkpatrick v. Preisler, 394 U.S. 526, 535, 89 S.Ct. 1225, 1231, 22 L.Ed.2d 519, reh'g denied, 395 U.S. 917, 89 S.Ct. 1737, 23 L.Ed.2d 231 (1969). See also Burns v. Richardson, 384 U.S. 73, 91, 86 S.Ct. 1286, 1296, 16 L.Ed.2d 376 (1966) (the Equal Protection Clause does not require the States to use total population figures derived from the federal census as the standard by which ... substantial population equivalency is to be measured.). The Court has never hinted that plaintiffs claiming present Voting Rights Act violations should be required to wait until the next census before they can receive any remedy. 34 The Fifth Circuit has held that non-census data may be considered in reapportionments between censuses if the relevant information cannot be obtained through census data. Westwego Citizens for Better Government v. Westwego, 906 F.2d 1042, 1045-46 (5th Cir.1990). Such a practice makes sense not only where, as in Westwego itself, census data on the population in question was unavailable because of the limited nature of the compilations and manipulations performed by the census; it is also logical where, as here, the census data is almost a decade old and therefore no longer accurate. 3 35 The County contests the validity of the population statistics that the court employed. The district court's findings, however, present an extensive review of the data itself and of the methodology that produced it, coupled with an inquiry into its validity. The County has not offered any reason why the district court should have rejected this data, other than the fact that it does not come from the census. Since it was permissible for the district court to rely on non-census data, we find that the district court did not err in its assessment of the size and geographic distribution of the Hispanic population in Los Angeles. 36 The district court's findings concerning vote dilution may be set aside only if they are clearly erroneous. Gingles, 478 U.S. at 79, 106 S.Ct. at 2781. The findings at issue here were amply supported by the evidence that was before the district court. 37
Citizen Data 38 The County contends that because the district court's reapportionment plan employs statistics based upon the total population of the County, rather than the voting population, it is erroneous as a matter of law. The County points out that many Hispanics in the County are noncitizens, and suggests that therefore a redistricting plan based upon population alone, in which Hispanics are concentrated in one district, unconstitutionally weights the votes of citizens in that district more heavily than those of citizens in other districts. 39 The district court adopted a plan with nearly equal numbers of persons in each district. 4 The districts deviated in population by sixty-eight hundredths of one percent. (Findings and Order Regarding Remedial Redistricting Plan and Election Schedule, 4). The variance is larger when the number of voting age citizens in each district is considered. 5 40 The County is correct in pointing out that Burns v. Richardson, 384 U.S. 73, 91-92, 86 S.Ct. 1286, 1296-97, 16 L.Ed.2d 376 (1966), seems to permit states to consider the distribution of the voting population as well as that of the total population in constructing electoral districts. It does not, however, require states to do so. In fact, the Richardson Court expressly stated that [t]he decision to include or exclude [aliens or other nonvoters from the apportionment base] involves choices about the nature of representation with which we have been shown no constitutionally founded reason to interfere. 384 U.S. at 92, 86 S.Ct. at 1296-97. Richardson does not overrule the portion of Reynolds v. Sims, 377 U.S. 533, 568, 84 S.Ct. 1362, 1385, 12 L.Ed.2d 506 (1964), that held that apportionment for state legislatures must be made upon the basis of population. 41 In Reynolds, 377 U.S. at 560-61, 84 S.Ct. at 1381, the Supreme Court applied to the apportionment of state legislative seats the standard enunciated in Wesberry v. Sanders, 376 U.S. 1, 84 S.Ct. 526, 11 L.Ed.2d 481 (1964), that the fundamental principle of representative government is one of equal representation for equal numbers of people, without regard to race, sex, economic status, or place of residence within a state. This standard derives from the constitutional requirement that members of the House of Representatives are elected by the people, Reynolds, 377 U.S. at 560, 84 S.Ct. at 1381, from districts founded on the aggregate number of inhabitants of each state (James Madison, The Federalist, No. 54 at 369 (J. Cooke ed. 1961)); U.S. Const. art. I, Sec. 2. The framers were aware that this apportionment and representation base would include categories of persons who were ineligible to vote--women, children, bound servants, convicts, the insane, and, at a later time, aliens. Fair v. Klutznick, 486 F.Supp. 564, 576 (D.D.C.1980). Nevertheless, they declared that government should represent all the people. In applying this principle, the Reynolds Court recognized that the people, including those who are ineligible to vote, form the basis for representative government. Thus population is an appropriate basis for state legislative apportionment. 42 Furthermore, California state law requires districting to be accomplished on the basis of total population. California Elections Code Sec. 35000. No part of the holding in Richardson, or in any other case cited by the appellants, suggests that the requirements imposed by such state laws may be unconstitutional. In fact, in Gaffney v. Cummings, 412 U.S. 735, 747, 93 S.Ct. 2321, 2328, 37 L.Ed.2d 298 (1973), the Court approved a redistricting based on total population, but with some deviations based upon consideration of political factors. In approving that plan, the Court expressly noted that districting based upon total population would lead to some disparities in the size of the eligible voting population among districts. These differences arise from the number of people ineligible to vote because of age, alienage, or non-residence, and because many people choose not to register or vote. Id. at 746-47, 93 S.Ct. at 2328. The Court made no intimation that such disparities would render those apportionment schemes constitutionally infirm. 43 Even the limited latitude Gaffney affords state and local governments to depart from strict total population equality is unavailable here. The Supreme Court has held that unless a court ordering a redistricting plan can show that population variances are required by significant state policies, that court must devise a plan that provides for districts of equal population. Chapman v. Meier, 420 U.S. 1, 24, 95 S.Ct. 751, 764, 42 L.Ed.2d 766 (1975). Since California law requires equality of total population across districts, there are no locally relevant contrary policies. 44 There is an even more important consideration. Basing districts on voters rather than total population results in serious population inequalities across districts. Residents of the more populous districts thus have less access to their elected representative. Those adversely affected are those who live in the districts with a greater percentage of non-voting populations, including aliens and children. Because there are more young people in the predominantly Hispanic District 1 (34.5% of the L.A. County Hispanic population (Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law re: County's Remedial Plan, 5-6)), citizens of voting age, minors and others residing in the district will suffer diminishing access to government in a voter-based apportionment scheme. 45 The purpose of redistricting is not only to protect the voting power of citizens; a coequal goal is to ensure equal representation for equal numbers of people. Kirkpatrick, 394 U.S. at 531, 89 S.Ct. at 1229. Interference with individuals' free access to elected representatives impermissibly burdens their right to petition the government. Eastern Railroad President's Conference v. Noerr Motor Freight, Inc., 365 U.S. 127, 137, 81 S.Ct. 523, 539, 5 L.Ed.2d 464, reh'g denied, 365 U.S. 875, 81 S.Ct. 899, 5 L.Ed.2d 864 (1961). Since the whole concept of representation depends upon the ability of the people to make their wishes known to their representatives, this right to petition is an important corollary to the right to be represented. Id. Non-citizens are entitled to various federal and local benefits, such as emergency medical care and pregnancy-related care provided by Los Angeles County. California Welfare and Institutions Code Secs. 14007.5, 17000. As such, they have a right to petition their government for services and to influence how their tax dollars are spent. 46 In this case, basing districts on voting population rather than total population would disproportionately affect these rights for people living in the Hispanic district. Such a plan would dilute the access of voting age citizens in that district to their representative, and would similarly abridge the right of aliens and minors to petition that representative. For over a century, the Supreme Court has recognized that aliens are persons within the meaning of the fourteenth amendment to the Constitution, entitled to equal protection. See Yick Wo v. Hopkins, 118 U.S. 356, 368, 6 S.Ct. 1064, 1070, 30 L.Ed. 220 (1886). This equal protection right serves to allow political participation short of voting or holding a sensitive public office. See Bernal v. Fainter, 467 U.S. 216, 104 S.Ct. 2312, 81 L.Ed.2d 175 (1984) (law that would have denied alien the right to become a notary public and thereby assist in litigation for the benefit of migrant workers struck down under strict scrutiny equal protection analysis); Nyquist v. Mauclet, 432 U.S. 1, 97 S.Ct. 2120, 53 L.Ed.2d 63 (1977) (state's interest in educating its electorate does not justify excluding aliens from state scholarship program, since aliens may participate in their communities in ways short of voting). Minors, too, have the right to political expression. Tinker v. Des Moines Community School Dist., 393 U.S. 503, 511-13, 89 S.Ct. 733, 739-40, 21 L.Ed.2d 731 (1969). To refuse to count people in constructing a districting plan ignores these rights in addition to burdening the political rights of voting age citizens in affected districts. 47 The principles were well expressed by the California Supreme Court in its opinion in Calderon v. City of Los Angeles, 4 Cal.3d 251, 258-59, 93 Cal.Rptr. 361, 365-66, 481 P.2d 489 (1971), in holding that the United States Constitution requires apportionment by total population, not by voting population. 48 Although we are, of course, constrained by the supremacy clause (U.S. Const., art VI, cl. 2) to follow decisions of the Supreme Court on matters of constitutional interpretation, we emphasize that we do so here not only from constitutional compulsion but also as a matter of conviction. Adherence to a population standard, rather than one based on registered voters, is more likely to guarantee that those who cannot or do not cast a ballot may still have some voice in government. 49 Thus a 17-year-old, who by state law is prohibited from voting, may still have strong views on the Vietnam War which he wishes to communicate to the elected representative from his area. Furthermore, much of a legislator's time is devoted to providing services and information to his constituents, both voters and nonvoters. A district which, although large in population, has a low percentage of registered voters would, under a voter-based apportionment, have fewer representatives to provide such assistance and to listen to concerned citizens. (footnote omitted). 50 Judge Kozinski's dissent would require districting on the basis of voting capability. Adoption of Judge Kozinski's position would constitute a denial of equal protection to these Hispanic plaintiffs and rejection of a valued heritage.
51 After it found that the County's districting plan was statutorily and constitutionally invalid, the district court gave the County 20 days to develop and propose a remedial plan of its own. The County submitted a plan, but the district court rejected it because, although it did create a district that had a Hispanic majority, it unnecessarily fragmented other Hispanic populations in the County. The district court found that such fragmentation posed an impediment to Hispanic political cohesiveness. Furthermore, the district court objected to the placement of the Hispanic majority district in a section controlled by a powerful incumbent, rather than in the one section that had a naturally occurring open seat, an open seat that was in the heart of the Hispanic core. For these reasons, the district court found that the County's plan did not represent a good faith effort to remedy the violation. 52 The County objects to the district court's rejection of its proposal. It argues that the district court may not substitute even what it considers to be an objectively superior plan for an otherwise constitutionally and legally valid plan, citing Wright v. City of Houston, 806 F.2d 634 (5th Cir.1986); Seastrunk v. Burns, 772 F.2d 143, 151 (5th Cir.1985). 53 However, there appear to be at least two fundamental reasons why the district court was not required to defer to the plan put forward by the supervisors in this case. First, as two of the supervisors themselves point out in their separate brief on the issue, the plan that the Board submitted to the district court could not, under the County's charter, have been considered a Board Redistricting plan, because only three members voted in favor of it, not the four required for such matters. Los Angeles County Charter, Art. II, Sec. 7 (1985). Thus, the proposal was not an act of legislation; rather, it was a suggestion by some members of the Board, entitled to consideration along with the other suggestions that had been received. Second, the district court found that it did not constitute a good faith attempt to remedy the violation because, inter alia, it used unnatural configurations in order to place an Anglo incumbent in the new Hispanic district, and it fragmented some Hispanic communities in other districts in the same manner in which the Board had deliberately diluted Hispanic influence in the past. 54
55 The County argues that, by deliberately creating a district with a Hispanic majority, the district court engaged in discrimination in favor of a minority group of the type forbidden by City of Richmond v. J.A. Croson Co., 488 U.S. 469, 109 S.Ct. 706, 102 L.Ed.2d 854 (1989). It claims to have had a valid defense based upon the district court's creation of an equal protection violation in order to establish a Section 2 claim. The district court erred, it contends, in refusing to address this constitutional defense. 56 The County makes no suggestion, however, that the redistricting plan somehow dilutes the voting strength of the Anglo community. The deliberate construction of minority controlled voting districts is exactly what the Voting Rights Act authorizes. Such districting, whether worked by a court or by a political entity in the first instance, does not violate the constitution. United Jewish Organizations v. Carey, 430 U.S. 144, 97 S.Ct. 996, 51 L.Ed.2d 229 (1977). For that reason, the district court properly refused to consider the appellants' constitutional defense.