Court Opinion

ID: 9467524
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 01:50:50.402589+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:40:23.346768
License: Public Domain

HENDERSON, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
Although I can appreciate the monumental task of the district court in its articulation of findings of fact and conclusions of law, I am of the opinion that this case should be remanded for reconsideration in light of City of Mobile v. Bolden, 446 U.S. 55, 100 S.Ct. 1490, 64 L.Ed.2d 47 (1980).
The constitutionality of the at-large voting system for county commissioners in Burke County, Georgia, has not been tested by the Mobile criteria. The majority opin*1382ion recognizes that the district court’s decision was made without the guidance of Mobile, but it states that the inquiry into discriminatory intent actually undertaken by the trial court satisfies that standard.
Mobile does more than reaffirm the necessity for a showing of discriminatory intent, however. Mobile also abolishes the simple “aggregate of factors” approach of Zimmer v. McKeithen, 485 F.2d 1297 (5th Cir. 1973) aff’d. sub nom. East Carroll Parish School Board v. Marshall, 424 U.S. 636, 96 S.Ct. 1083, 47 L.Ed.2d 196 (1976), heretofore followed in this circuit. In its place, Mobile institutes a “totality of the circumstances” test in which the Zimmer factors still possess relevance but to varying degrees. Thus, past official discrimination is not to be treated as an “original sin” and unresponsiveness by elected officials is “relevant only as the most tenuous and circumstantial evidence of the constitutional invalidity of the electoral system under which they attained their offices.” City of Mobile v. Bolden, 100 S.Ct. at 1503, 64 L.Ed.2d at 63.
Zimmer was not the sole measure by which the findings of fact of the district court were tailored. That order was gauged by a hybrid standard referred to as the Zimmer-Kirksey test. Kirksey v. Board of Supervisors, 554 F.2d 139 (5th Cir. 1977) instructs that depressed socio-economic status which hinders participation in community affairs signals a denial of access to the political process. Kirksey v. Board of Supervisors, 554 F.2d at 143. In the findings of fact of the district judge, depressed socio-economic status was accorded consideration equal to that given the Zimmer factors. Yet, the Mobile plurality considers historical and social factors, apart from the discrimination generated by official state action, to be “gauzy sociological considerations [which] have no constitutional basis.” City of Mobile v. Bolden, 100 S.Ct. at 1504 n. 22, 64 L.Ed.2d at 64 n. 22.
Mr. Justice Stevens joined the Mobile plurality decision to retain Mobile’s commission form of government as constitutionally permissible. I find two policy considerations raised in his concurrence to be persuasive. Each notion counsels the judiciary to exercise restraint in voting dilution cases. First, at-large systems will always disadvantage one or more minority groups struggling for political power. Yet, the essence of democracy is majority rule and a voting structure must be judged by a standard that “allows the political process to function effectively.” City of Mobile v. Bolden, 100 S.Ct. at 1509, 64 L.Ed.2d at 70. Second, the standard chosen cannot hold reprehensible all detrimental effects on an identifiable political group because such a test would invite a host of voting dilution cases sure to plunge the judiciary into a “voracious political thicket.” City of Mobile v. Bolden, 100 S.Ct. at 1514, 64 L.Ed.2d at 75. Reading Mr. Justice Stevens’ concurrence together with the plurality opinion leads me to conclude that before a court may intrude into local political processes, it must possess stronger evidence of invidious motivation than past social discrimination and economic deprivation.
An exposition of evidence more detailed than that made by the district judge in the Mobile case is seldom seen. Bolden v. City of Mobile, 422 F.Supp. 384 (S.D.Ala.1976). Most of the evidence here is of a similar character. Yet in the eyes of the Supreme Court, the findings set forth in Mobile were insufficient to prove unconstitutional voting dilution because the data was not viewed in the proper perspective. The conclusions drawn from the evidence gathered below may suffer from the same infirmity. As I read Mobile, it demands emphasis on evidence of official state denial of equal participation in the slating and election process and eschews heavy reliance on socio-economic data. A remand for reassessment of the record evidence, together with additional evidence, if necessary, seems to be the appropriate course of action. For these reasons, I respectfully dissent.