Gunn v. Chickasaw County Ex Rel. President of Chickasaw County

705 F. Supp. 315, 1989 WL 8732
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Mississippi
DecidedJanuary 24, 1989
DocketCiv. A. EC 87-165-D-D
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 705 F. Supp. 315 (Gunn v. Chickasaw County Ex Rel. President of Chickasaw County) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Mississippi primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Gunn v. Chickasaw County Ex Rel. President of Chickasaw County, 705 F. Supp. 315, 1989 WL 8732 (N.D. Miss. 1989).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION

DAVIDSON, District Judge.

I. Introduction

This class action challenges the validity of Chickasaw County, Mississippi’s 1983 redistricting plan as it pertains to the election of the County Board of Supervisors and the Board of Election Commissioners. Both plaintiffs and defendants have submitted alternative plans for consideration in the event that the court should find the current plan to be invalid. Plaintiffs proceed under Section 2 et seq. of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, as amended, codified at 42 U.S.C. § 1973 et seq., and also the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution, and 42 U.S.C. § 1983. Plaintiffs’ allegations track the language of Section 2, and additionally allege that the violation was intentional. As the court finds that the 1983 redistricting plan, currently in force in Chickasaw County, violates Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, the court does not reach plaintiffs’ other claims. See Thornburg v. Gingles, 478 U.S. 30, 38, 106 S.Ct. 2752, 2760, 92 L.Ed.2d 25, 38-39 (1986).

II. Findings of Fact

A. Generally

Chickasaw County encompasses 506 square miles in North Mississippi, and includes four separate incorporated municipalities, including two county seats, Houston and Okolona. The two other incorporated municipalities are Houlka and Woodland. The total population of Chickasaw County, according to the 1980 census, as amended to June 3, 1982, is 17,851; there are 6,444 black citizens, 11,371 white citizens and 36 citizens of other races. Blacks make up 36.10 percent of the county’s total population and over 31 percent of the voting age population. The current districting *317 plan was drafted by Michelle Johnstone, a demographer who operates a private consulting firm. On January 3, 1983, after public hearings, the plan was adopted by the Board of Supervisors. The plan was precleared, pursuant to Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, by the United States Attorney General’s office on August 26, 1983, and was put into effect later that year. That plan creates five supervisory districts, with the following racial compositions:

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As listed in the preclearance presentation submitted to the Attorney General, the objections and criteria for the current reapportionment were:

1. Equality of Population as required by state law and judicial precedent.
2. Non-dilution of minority and political element voting strength.
3. Equality of length of road and bridge mileage among the districts.
4. Contiguity and compactness of districts.
5. The least possible disruption of present taxing districts, voting precincts, polling places, and administration of voting changes.
6. State law requiring that newly drawn lines must follow natural boundaries; and other appropriate state statutes.

Ms. Johnstone further testified at trial that consideration was given to keeping cohesive groups together. She explained also that voters often had trouble understanding changes in their districts, and so she attempted, in drafting the plan, to keep voters in the same district if possible. She did not hold the maximization of black voting strength as a high priority, though she actively attempted to avoid diluting pre-ex-isting black voting strength.

B. The “Typical Factors”

In Thornburg v. Gingles, 478 U.S. 30, 36-37, 106 S.Ct. 2752, 2759-2760, 92 L.Ed. 2d 25, 38 (1986), the Supreme Court set out the “typical factors” which may be probative of a violation of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, and identified in the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Majority Report which accompanied the Bill that amended the Voting Rights Act. The report had identified seven primary factors and two additional factors, but cautioned that “[wjhile these enumerated factors will often be the most relevant ones, in some cases other factors will be indicative of the alleged dilution.” S.Rep. No. 97-417, 97th Cong. 2 Sess. 28-29, reprinted in 1982 U.S.Code Cong, and Ad.News 177, 206-07. “[Tjhere is no requirement that any particular number of factors be proved, or that a majority of them point one way or the other.” Gingles, at 45, 106 S.Ct. at 2764, 92 L.Ed.2d at 43 (quoting Report). The factors are:

(1) the extent of any history of official discrimination in the state or political subdivision that touched the right of the members of the minority group to register, to vote, or otherwise to participate in the democratic process;
(2) the extent to which voting in the elections of the state or political subdivision is racially polarized;
(3) the extent to which the state or political subdivision has used unusually large election districts, majority vote requirements, anti-single shot provisions, or other voting practices or procedures that may enhance the opportunity for discrimination against the minority group;
(4) if there is a candidate-slating process, whether the members of the minority *318 group have been denied access to that process;
(5) the extent to which members of the minority group in the state or political subdivision bear the effects of discrimination in such areas as education, employment and health, which hinder their ability to participate effectively in the political process;
(6) whether political campaigns have been characterized by overt or subtle racial appeals;
(7) the extent to which members of the minority group have been elected to public office in the jurisdiction.
Additional factors that in some cases have had probative value as part of plaintiffs’ evidence to establish a violation are:
whether there is a significant lack of responsiveness on the part of elected officials to the particularized needs of the members of the minority group, whether the policy underlying the state or political subdivision’s use of such voting qualification, prerequisite to voting, or standard practice or procedure is tenuous.

Id.

The court’s consideration of these factors is in the nature of findings of fact; after considering the evidence within the formal framework of these factors, the court must apply the “totality of the circumstances” test set forth in Section 2(b).

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Bluebook (online)
705 F. Supp. 315, 1989 WL 8732, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gunn-v-chickasaw-county-ex-rel-president-of-chickasaw-county-msnd-1989.