Opinion ID: 891859
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: specific instructions on remand

Text: {43} In our previous order, we remanded this matter to the district court to draw a redistricting map with the assistance of an expert under Rule 11-706. The district court was instructed to include the Multi-Tribal/Navajo Nation partial plan within any redistricting map that the district court will draw. In addition, we required the district court to reject all of the previously submitted plans because of the political advantage sought by the parties. The accusation that we ordered the district court to reduce Republican seats in the House originates in the imagination of the accuser. We asked the court to draw its own map with the desired goal being to draw a partisan-neutral map that complies with both the one person, one vote constitutional doctrine, the requirements of the Voting Rights Act, and considers other historical and legitimate state redistricting principles. Although it has been suggested that a partisan-neutral map is illusory, the history of this case proves otherwise. The parties were able to draw maps that gave them each a political advantage and with population deviations that likely would have passed constitutional scrutiny. A court, with a cautious eye toward neutrality, can make the good faith effort to draw a map that advantages neither political party. {44} Other concerns were alluded to in the order with the expectation that the district court would give such concerns due consideration. However, the order does not specifically direct the district court what to do, if anything, about those concerns. The district court continues to have the discretion necessary to carry out its equitable jurisdiction. {45} We provided the district court with the following instructions which we repeat here so as to document the instructions in this published opinion. In doing so, the district court should rely, as much as possible, on the evidence presently in the record, and it should not admit additional evidence from the parties. The district court should consider historically significant state policies as discussed herein through the use, where justified, of greater population deviations as set forth in the Legislative Council guidelines. At the district court's discretion, the parties may be permitted, but are not entitled, to file briefs identifying what state policies are supported by the evidence in the record that will assist the court in drawing a plan that results in less partisan performance changes and fewer divisions of communities of interest than the plan it adopted. Also in the district court's discretion, Brian Sanderoff would be a permissible candidate to serve as a Rule 11-706 expert, because of time constraints and his established expertise. Whether or not to use any of the maps that were introduced into evidence as a starting point, including Executive Alternative Plan 3, is within the discretion of the district court. The parties shall have an opportunity to comment on a preliminary plan proposed by the district court before it ultimately adopts a final plan. The final map must take into account the following considerations: 1. Population deviations. Executive Alternative Plan 3 achieved very low population deviations, but it was at the expense of other traditional state redistricting policies, the most evident being the failure to keep communities of interest, such as municipalities, intact. Some cities were divided to maintain low population deviations among the different districts. On remand, the district court should consider whether additional cities, such as Deming, Silver City, and Las Vegas, can be maintained whole through creating a plan with greater than one-percent deviations. While low population deviations are desired, they are not absolutely required if the district court can justify population deviations with the non-discriminatory application of historical, legitimate, and rational state policies. 2. Partisan performance changes. On remand, the goal of any plan should be to devise a plan that is partisan-neutral and fair to both sides. If the district court chooses to begin with the plan it adopted previously, it should address the partisan performance changes and bias noted in this order, and if the bias can be corrected or ameliorated with enunciated nondiscriminatory application of historical, legitimate, and rational state policies, including through the use of higher population deviations, then the district court should do so. 3. As part of the review of partisan performance changes, the district court should consider the partisan effects of any consolidations. Any district that results from a Democrat-Republican consolidation, if that is what the district court elects to do, should result in a district that provides an equal opportunity to either party. In the alternative, some other compensatory action may be taken to mitigate any severe and unjustified partisan performance swing. The performance of created districts as well as those left behind should be justified. 4. Hispanic Majority District in House District 67. It does not appear that the district court considered Hispanic citizen voting-age populations in reaching its decision, and it should do so on remand. Whatever its eventual form, the relevant Clovis community must be represented by an effective, citizen, majority-minority district as that term is commonly understood in Voting Rights Act litigation, and as it has been represented, at least in effect, for the past three decades.