Court Opinion

ID: 9461084
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 22:05:27.06464+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:36:53.108068
License: Public Domain

STEVENS, Circuit Judge
(concurring) .
When resolution of a complex factual issue depends heavily on inferences to be drawn from circumstantial evidence, it is entirely appropriate to analyze a variety of statistical data. I agree completely with Judge Fairchild’s assumption that a 35% minority may be sufficiently significant to justify consideration of the number of wards containing such a minority, as well as the number containing a majority of an allegedly disadvantaged group. Since I have expressed the opinion that identifiable political and economic minority groups, as well as racial and ethnic groups, are entitled to constitutional protection against gerrymandering, see 466 F.2d at 848-853, it is important for me to add the caveat that my concurrence in Judge Fair-child’s meticulously accurate opinion does not imply that I would necessarily equate a 35% minority with working control of a political subdivision. It is merely one among several yardsticks which the proponent of a gerrymandering claim is entitled to put forward; its significance would obviously vary from case to case.
Because the issues presented by this case are of unique importance and arise in an area of the law which is largely undeveloped, I would add one further comment on the significance of Judge Fairchild’s opinion. It demonstrates, I believe, how important a careful and objective appraisal of the facts may be in a case of this character. It is judgments based on such appraisals that have made the process of case-by-case adjudication such an acceptable mechanism for orderly development of the law. In Yick Wo v. Hopkins, 118 U.S. 356, 6 S.Ct. 1064, 30 L.Ed. 220; Gomillion v. Lightfoot, 364 U.S. 339, 81 S.Ct. 125, 5 L.Ed.2d 110; Baker v. Carr, 369 U.S. 186, 82 S.Ct. 691, 7 L.Ed.2d 663, and countless other landmark cases, the outcome was compelled by facts which spoke — indeed, shouted — for themselves. Although there are disturbing aspects of this case, and although, unlike those eases, the constitutional claim fails in this ease, a thorough review of the evidence makes the required result perfectly clear. Those who would hereafter engage in gerrymandering must anticipate equally careful analysis of comparable claims in the future.