Communication 09 How To draw Redistricting Plans That Will Stand Up In Court

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In most areas of the country, you will only need to be concerned and Hispanics. 3.No Discriminatory Effect Purity of intent will not save your plan from attack under § 2. will have the effect of diluting minority voting strength, not w to discriminate. It is true that in 1980, in City of Mobile v. Bolden,446 U.S. 55, the U.S. Supreme Court interpreted § 2 as applying only to actions intended to discriminate. Black residents of Mobile, Alabama, had charged that the citys practice of electing commis voting strength. They failed to prove the at-large plan was ado intent to discriminate against Blacks. The Supreme Court refused to strike it down. In 1982, Congress amended the Voting Rights Act to reject the Co enacted, § 2 had prohibited conduct to deny or abridge the rig Pub. L. No. 89-110, 79 Stat. 437 (1965) (codified as 42 U.S.C. § changed that to prohibit conduct which results in a denial or a No. 97-205, § 3, June 29, 1982, 96 Stat. 134 (codified as amende42 U.S.C. § 1973). Before Bolden, courts had generally considered whether a particular redistric effect of diluting the voting strength of the Black population. Congress c Bolden case law by adding: A violation of [§ 2] is established if, based on the totality of shown that the political processes leading to nomination or elec political subdivision are not equally open to participation by m citizens protected by [§ 2] in that its members have less opport members of the electorate to participate in the political proces representatives of their choice. The extent to which members of have been elected to office in the State or political subdivisio which may be considered: Provided, That nothing in this section establishes a right to have members of a protected class elected in numbers equal to the population. 42 U.S.C. § 1973 (b). 4.The Three Gingles Preconditions In order to assist courts in evaluating challenges to redistrict Thornburg v. Gingles,478 U.S. 30 (1986), imposed three preconditions that a plaintiff must prove before a court must proceed to a detailed analysis of a plan: 1) that the minority is sufficiently large and geographically co in a single-member district; 19