Court Opinion

ID: 9458778
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 21:01:18.168428+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:35:53.417500
License: Public Domain

GEWIN, Circuit Judge
(concurring in part and dissenting in part):
I fully concur with the majority’s conclusion that § 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 does not compel the submission of court ordered plans to the Attorney General and that the district court was without jurisdiction to modify its August 2, 1971, reapportionment decree after an appeal had been taken from that decree and before this court had disposed of that appeal. However, I am very doubtful that the majority accords proper emphasis to significant facts in this ease or that the correct legal standard has been applied to the facts. I therefore dissent from the affirmance of the August 2, 1971, reapportionment decree.
At the outset I feel constrained to point out that it appears that the majority fails to give adequate consideration to the appellant’s contentions. Marshall and the class he represents do emphasize their contention that the court was without power to order at-large elections because of the Attorney General’s disapproval of the Louisiana statutes. But Marshall also asserts that the court was clearly erroneous in finding that at-large elections do not dilute the voting strength of black voters of that parish.1 I believe that Marshall is correct in this assertion.
It seems to me the majority errs in focusing exclusively on the total population ratio of the Parish. The standard which the Supreme Court has articulated' is whether “designedly or otherwise, a multi-member constituency apportionment scheme, under the circumstances of a particular case, would operate to minimize or cancel out the voting strength of racial or political elements of the voting population.” Burns v. Richardson, 384 U.S. 73, 88, 86 S.Ct. 1286, 1294, 16 L.Ed.2d 376, 388 (1966); Fortson v. Dorsey, 379 U.S. 433, 439, 85 S.Ct. 498, 13 L.Ed.2d 401, 405 (1965).2 The majority opinion presumes that since the blacks *1386in East Carroll Parish constitute a numerical majority (59%) it is therefore impossible as a matter of law for their voting strength to be diluted, minimized or cancelled. The blacks in the Parish presently constitute a minority of the registered voters (46%). During the ten year period from 1961 to 1971 the black voter registration in the Parish increased from zero to approximately 2,899 (including 2,122 Federally registered voters) while the white registration increased from approximately 2,845 to 3,342.3
Louisiana law has for many years required the members of the Parish Police Jury and School Board to be residents of the ward from which they are elected and to be elected by the voters of the ward. L.R.S. § 33:1221, et seq.; L.R.S. § 17.51.4 Prior to the court-ordered change to at-large elections in 1968, black representatives were elected from the wards to two seats on the Police Jury and to. one seat on the School Board.
It is apparent to me that the change to elections at-large makes it substantially more difficult for black voters to elect representatives than under the traditional ward system which Louisiana law requires. The at-large election dilutes any possible majority of black registered voters in one or more new and impartially drawn wards with the overall majority of white registered voters in the Parish. It was precisely this sort of dilution which caused the Attorney General to disapprove under § 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, 42 U.S.C., § 1973c, the Louisiana statutes which sought to amend the Louisiana law to allow at-large elections for school boards and police juries.
However it is not necessary to decide whether in the circumstances of this case the dilution rises to the level of a denial of 14th or 15th Amendment rights. In this case we need only determine whether the district court abused its discretion in fashioning an equitable remedy. We are not faced with taking the constitutional measure of an apportionment policy adopted by the state or one of its sub-divisions as was the court in Ferrell v. Hall, 406 U.S. 939, 92 S.Ct. 2045, 32 L.Ed.2d 328 (1972); Whitcomb v. Chavis, 403 U.S. 124, 91 S.Ct. 1858, 29 L.Ed.2d 353 (1971) and Burns v. Richardson, 384 U.S. 73, 86 S.Ct. 1286, 16 L.Ed.2d 376 (1966).
In Connor v. Johnson, 402 U.S. 690, 91 S.Ct. 1760, 29 L.Ed.2d 268 (1971) the Supreme Court noted:
“. . . [W]hen district courts are forced to fashion apportionment plans, single-member districts are preferable to large multi-member districts as a general matter.”
*1387402 U.S. at 692, 91 S.Ct. at 1762, 29 L.Ed.2d at 271. See also, Hall v. Issaquena County Board of Supervisors, 453 F.2d 404 (5th Cir. 1971). No insurmountable difficulties of any kind have been demonstrated in this case. Both parties here presented the district court with a choice of various plans employing the traditional ward concept5 which would have adequately solved the one-man one-vote problem without the dilution created by a wholly at-large scheme.
My view is not altered by this court’s decision in Howard v. Adams County Board of Supervisors, 453 F.2d 455 (5th Cir. 1972). Howard approved the realignment of districts to comply with the one-man one-vote concept, not the adoption of an at-large election scheme. The white population constituted a numerical majority in Adams County and the black plaintiffs essentially sought to have the new districts drawn so as to assure two black majority districts. The Board of Supervisors adopted a reapportionment plan devised by an outside consulting firm, not the district court, which had been instructed to equalize the population in the districts and equalize the responsibilities of each supervisor. Finally, the plan in Howard had been submitted to the Attorney General for his approval and the Attorney General had indicated no objection.
While not controlling here, the disapproval of the Louisiana at-large election statutes by the Attorney General is strong evidence in support of Marshall’s contention that the at-large scheme results in dilution of the black voting strength. Obviously the district court became dissatisfied with its own choice of a plan because the court sought to change its decree pending appeal to award the relief Marshall requested. I would vacate the district court’s order of August 2, 1971 and remand the case for the entry of an appropriate apportionment decree.

. Appellants brief on appeal pp. 5, 15-17.

. The majority opinion relies on Howard v. Adams County Board of Supervisors, 453 F.2d 455 (5th Cir. 1972) to support its view that population, not voting strength, is determinative. That reliance appears inappropriate in view of Judge Dyer’s discussion of the voting strength test, 453 F.2d at 457-458, and the approval of the district court’s finding that the plaintiffs there had failed to show that the plan was a constitutionally im-permisible dilution, minimization, or cancellation of the voting strength of the black citizens of Adams County, 453 F.2d at 458.

. These figures are based on the 1962 findings of the district court in the voter registration suit brought in the Parish, United States v. Manning, 205 F.Supp. 172 (W.D.La.1962), and on the State of Louisiana Board of Registration, Report of Registered Voters, month ending October 6, 1971. See Appellant’s Brief, p. 3; . Appellee’s Supplemental Brief, p. 1.

. Until 1968, Louisiana law prohibited at-large elections for School Boards and Police Juries (the law required at least five wards from which the members of these bodies were to be elected). By Louisiana Acts of 1968 No. 445 Section 1 (amending La. R.S. 33:1221) and No. 561 (adding La. R.S. 17:71.1-71.6), Louisiana Law was amended to allow at-large elections (or elections from less than five wards) for School Boards and Police Juries.
On April 29, 1969, Acts 445 and 561 were submitted to the Attorney General of the United States pursuant to Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, 42 U.S.C. 1973c. On June 26, 1969, both Acts were rejected as having “the effect of discrimination against Negro voters on account of their race, and of denying to them an effective voice in the selection of Police Jury and School Board members.” On September 10, 1969 this rejection was reaffirmed by the Attorney General of the United States, citing as a specific example of racial discrimination, the at-large scheme of elections in East Carroll Parish.

. Tlie Police Jury proposed an alternative plan for elections from districts in the event the district court found the at-large plan unconstitutional.