Court Opinion

ID: 9427287
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:20:20.034938+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:23:05.939383
License: Public Domain

Mr. Justice Powell,
with whom The Chief Justice, Mr. Justice Blackmun, and Mr. Justice Rehnquist join, concurring in part and concurring in the judgment.
I agree with Mr. Justice White’s conclusion that the reapportionment plan adopted by the Dallas City Council was a "legislative plan” for purposes of review by a federal court. In my view, however, his reasoning in reaching that conclusion casts doubt on Burns v. Richardson, 384 U. S. 73 (1966).
*548Mr. Justice White reads East Carroll Parish School Bd. v. Marshall, 424 U. S. 636 (1976), as establishing the principle that a proposed reapportionment plan cannot be considered a legislative plan if the political body suggesting it lacks legal power to reapportion itself. Ante, at 545. Because the City Council ordinarily would have had no power to reapportion itself — a Charter amendment being necessary to that end— Mr. Justice White is constrained to assume that the Council became imbued with such power after the District Court struck down the apportionment provisions of the City Charter. Aside from the fact that this aspect of Texas law was neither fully briefed nor argued, the assumption seems unnecessary.
In Burns v. Richardson, supra, the Hawaii Legislature was without power to reapportion itself, a constitutional amendment being required for that purpose. Nevertheless, this Court treated the plan that the legislature proposed to submit to the voters as a legislative plan. By parity of reasoning, the plan proposed by the Dallas City Council in this case must be considered legislative, even if the Council had no power to reapportion itself. The Council plan was then implemented by court order, 399 F. Supp. 782, 798 (ND Tex. 1975), just as the legislature’s plan in Bums ultimately was imposed pending the outcome of the constitutional amendment process, 384 U. S., at 98.
The essential point is that the Dallas City Council exercised a legislative judgment, reflecting the policy choices of the elected representatives of the people, rather than the remedial directive of a federal court. As we held in Burns, supra, at 85, “a State’s freedom of choice to devise substitutes for an apportionment plan found unconstitutional, either as a whole or in part, should not be restricted beyond the clear commands of the Equal Protection Clause.” This rule of deference to local legislative judgments remains in force even if, as in Burns, our examination of state law suggests that the local body lacks authority to reapportion itself.
*549Thus, Mr. Justice White’s statement that East Carroll School Bd. stands for the proposition that a plan submitted by a political body without power to reapportion itself cannot be considered a legislative plan appears to be in direct conflict with Burns. Because the brief per curiam in East Carroll did not even cite Burns, I would read it as turning on its peculiar facts. In response to the litigation in East Carroll, the legislature enacted a statute enabling police juries and school boards to reapportion themselves by employing at-large elections. That enabling legislation was disapproved by the Attorney General of the United States under § 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, as amended, 42 U. S. C. § 1973c (1970 ed., Supp. V), because of its impermissible impact on Negro voters. This determination meant that the specific plans proposed by the school board and police jury in that case would have had unlawful effects. Because their legislative judgment had been found tainted in that respect, it followed that the normal presumption of legitimacy afforded the balances reflected in legislative plans, see Burns, supra, at 84-85, could not be indulged. To the extent that East Carroll implies anything further about the principle established in Burns, the latter must be held to' control.
Having determined on the basis of Burns that the City Council plan was legislative, I agree with Mr. Justice White’s conclusion that the judgment of the Court of Appeals must be reversed. I also agree that there is no reason for this Court to explore difficult questions concerning § 5 of the Voting Rights Act in the absence of consideration by the courts below.
Opinion of
Mr. Justice Rehnquist,
with whom The Chief Justice, Mr. Justice Stewart, and Mr. Justice Powell join.
I write separately to emphasize that the Court today is not presented with the question of whether the District Court erred in concluding that the form of government of the city of *550Dallas unconstitutionally diluted the voting power of black citizens. While this Court has found that the use of multi-member districts in a state legislative apportionment plan may be invalid if “used invidiously to cancel out or minimize the voting strength of racial groups/’ White v. Regester, 412 U. S. 755, 765 (1973), we have never had occasion to consider whether an analogue of this highly amorphous theory may be applied to municipal governments. Since petitioners did not preserve this issue on appeal, we need not today consider whether relevant constitutional distinctions may be drawn in this area between a state legislature and a municipal government. I write only to point out that the possibility of such distinctions has not been foreclosed by today’s decision.