Court Opinion

ID: 9472678
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 04:07:12.116219+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:43:04.194381
License: Public Domain

RANDALL, Circuit Judge,
specially concurring:
Although I concur in the result reached by the panel, I cannot join in the majority’s opinion because I find it unnecessarily broad. As the majority observed, under Williams v. Leatherbury, 672 F.2d 549, 551 (5th Cir.1982), attorney’s fees can be awarded under the prevailing party standard only if the appellants’ claim is not frivolous or groundless. Thus, I agree with the court’s general refusal to consider the merits of the appellant’s suit to enjoin the election. Moreover, because I believe that there were “reasonable grounds” for the appellant’s claim, I concur in the judgment of the court. In the course of its opinion, however, the majority quite clearly departs from the Leatherbury standard by regarding as “established fact” the proposition that the holding of the special election in August was itself a “change” within the ambit of section 5. In my view, this declaration by the court is both questionable and unnecessary to the holding.
The record clearly indicates that the Progreso and Weslaco School Districts had never before been the subject of a consolidation election. The election itself was a special election called by the county judge pursuant to § 19.233 to be held at the next available precleared date. The previous elections that were mentioned in the majority opinion as being held traditionally in April were all regular elections for school board trustees. Under these circumstances, it is not at all clear to me that the holding of the special consolidation election in August was a “change” from past practices. The consolidation election can be just as easily considered a one-time event which could have been set for any of the precleared dates.
In any event, the essential point here is that the panel went beyond the applicable standard in considering the merits of the issue at all. Under the Leatherbury standard, the panel should have held only that the appellant’s claim was colorable, while intimating no opinion on its merits.