Court Opinion

ID: 9467526
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 01:50:50.679623+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:40:23.348378
License: Public Domain

HENDERSON, Circuit Judge,
concurring in the result:
I concur in the result reached by the majority, but for the reasons set forth in my dissent in Lodge v. Buxton, 639 F.2d 1358 (5th Cir. 1981) decided today, I must respectfully disagree with the legal principles leading to that conclusion.
The district court order was entered prior to the Supreme Court’s decision in City of Mobile v. Bolden, 446 U.S. 55, 100 S.Ct. 1490, 64 L.Ed. 47 (1980). Consequently, the district judge did not have the benefit of the Mobile opinion but was bound by the mandate of Cross v. Baxter, 604 F.2d 875 (5th Cir. 1979). On remand, he conducted another hearing in which he evaluated the plaintiffs’ evidence of unresponsiveness and found it to be lacking. The majority, reaffirming the viability of this Zimmer factor, upholds the district judge’s finding. While I agree with the majority that the district court’s findings of fact are not clearly erroneous, I am also of the opinion that the evidence does not measure up to the Mobile standard for the maintenance of a voting dilution case. For this reason, I believe that the judgment of the district court should be affirmed.