Opinion ID: 719599
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Need to show past discrimination to apply the results test

Text: 94 Judge Mahoney's opinion apparently holds that the results test of the amended Voting Rights Act may constitutionally ban conduct which is not directly violative of the Fourteenth or Fifteenth Amendments 4 only if the ban addresse[s] historical discrimination of an unconstitutional kind. 5 According to Judge Mahoney, since felon disenfranchisement is a very widespread historical practice that has been accorded explicit constitutional recognition, 6 applying the Voting Rights Act to § 5-106 would raise serious constitutional questions. 95 Judge Mahoney's argument, taken at its fullest, would drastically limit the scope of § 2 of the Voting Rights Act, prohibiting a § 2 claim by any minority citizen in the absence of an allegation that the particular discriminatory practice had been intentionally imposed in the past in the particular jurisdiction. No case so holds. Thus, in Oregon v. Mitchell, 400 U.S. 112, 91 S.Ct. 260, 27 L.Ed.2d 272 (1970), the Court dealt with a 1970 amendment to the Voting Rights Act that extended to the nation as a whole the ban on the use of literacy tests that had earlier been confined to the geographical areas where they had intentionally been used to discriminatory effect. All the members of the Court upheld the nationwide ban as a legitimate exercise of Congress' power under the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, even though there was not proof of direct Constitutional violations in every State. Id. at 118, 91 S.Ct. at 261-62; see also id. at 284, 91 S.Ct. at 344 (Stewart, J., concurring in part and dissenting in part) (Because the justification for extending the ban on literacy tests to the entire Nation need not turn on whether literacy tests unfairly discriminate against Negroes in every State in the Union, Congress was not required to make state-by-state findings concerning either the equality of educational opportunity or actual impact of literacy requirements on the Negro citizen's access to the ballot box.). 96 In a subsequent decision, upholding the constitutionality of the results test contained in § 5 of the Act, the Supreme Court stated, It is clear, then, that under § 2 of the Fifteenth Amendment Congress may prohibit practices that in and of themselves do not violate § 1 of the Amendment, so long as the prohibitions attacking racial discrimination in voting are 'appropriate '.... City of Rome v. United States, 446 U.S. 156, 177, 100 S.Ct. 1548, 1561-62, 64 L.Ed.2d 119 (1980) (emphasis added); see also Katzenbach v. Morgan, 384 U.S. 641, 648-51, 86 S.Ct. 1717, 1722-24, 16 L.Ed.2d 828 (1966). In light of this, Congress included past discrimination as only one of a list of factors to be considered in determining whether there has been a violation of § 2 under the totality of the circumstances test. See Thornburg v. Gingles, 478 U.S. 30, 36-37, 106 S.Ct. 2752, 2758-59, 92 L.Ed.2d 25 (1986) (citing S.Rep. No. 97-417, 97th Cong., 2d Sess. 28-29 (1982), reprinted in 1982 U.S.C.C.A.N. 177, 206). 97 Moreover, I do not agree that there is no history of use of felon disenfranchisement statutes to impose purposeful racial discrimination. Although there has been no record developed in this case, due largely to its premature dismissal sua sponte, there is evidence to suggest that felon disenfranchisement statues often have been used to deny the right to vote on account of race. See Hunter, 471 U.S. at 232, 105 S.Ct. at 1922 (disenfranchisement statute adopted at Alabama Constitutional Convention of 1901 selected such crimes as vagrancy, living in adultery, and wife beating that were thought to be more commonly committed by blacks in order to evade the Fourteenth Amendment); see also Andrew L. Shapiro, Challenging Criminal Disenfranchisement Under the Voting Rights Act: A New Strategy, 103 Yale L.J. 537, 540-543 (1993) (identifying several states that allegedly disenfranchised criminals selectively with the intent of disqualifying a disproportionate number of blacks). While felon disenfranchisement may be a widespread historical practice, disenfranchisement based on race is a historical practice that the Voting Rights Act seeks to eradicate. 98 In sum, I believe Congress clearly has the power to apply the results test to § 5-106, New York's felon disenfranchisement statute. 99