Court Opinion

ID: 9835202
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-02 02:13:49.743948+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:44:59.300915
License: Public Domain

TJOFLAT, Circuit Judge,
concurring:
I agree with the Court that the District Court made impermissible credibility judgments here and for that reason the judgment must be reversed and the case remanded for further proceedings. But even if the District Court had not improperly weighed the evidence, I would still find that the judgment must be vacated and remanded.
Wright is essentially challenging only the at-large component of the ⅝ plan. However, Wright has failed to show how his alternative plan whereby all seven members of the Board are elected from single-member districts would increase African-American membership on the Board. He *874has shown that the majority voting-age population in three of the newly drawn districts would be African American, but without statistical evidence from past elections, it is pure speculation to say that African-American membership on the Board would thereby increase. It would be impossible for us to review the District Court’s order on summary judgment without findings with regard to the at-large elections. Among other things, to decide this § 2 case, the District Court must determine:
• How each district in the current ⅞ plan voted in the May 2014 at-large elections;
• How each district in the current ⅝ plan would be likely to vote in the proposed seven-district plan; and •
• How African Americans have previously performed in at-large elections.