1 / 13

TERMINATION OF VOTING RIGHTS JUDGMENTS AND ORDERS

TERMINATION OF VOTING RIGHTS JUDGMENTS AND ORDERS. The Thomasville Experience. Evolution of the Voting Rights Act. Section 2 (42 USC Sec. 1973) At-large elections ( e.g.,White v. Regester) Mobile v. Bolden 1982 amendments Thornburg v. Gingles. Thornburg v. Gingles.

Jimmy
Download Presentation

TERMINATION OF VOTING RIGHTS JUDGMENTS AND ORDERS

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. TERMINATION OF VOTING RIGHTS JUDGMENTS AND ORDERS The Thomasville Experience

  2. Evolution of the Voting Rights Act • Section 2 (42 USC Sec. 1973) • At-large elections (e.g.,White v. Regester) • Mobile v. Bolden • 1982 amendments • Thornburg v. Gingles

  3. Thornburg v. Gingles • Sufficiently large and geographically compact • Politically cohesive • White bloc voting prevents black success

  4. The lawsuits begin • Halifax and Bladen: Lose and pay lots of money • Consent decrees • About 90 cities, counties, school boards

  5. Typical consent decree • District elections • Increase size of board • No expiration date

  6. Pay attention if you are from:

  7. The Thomasville lawsuit • Five-member council, all at-large, four from residency districts • African Americans 32 percent of population • No black candidate ever elected • NAACP lawsuit 1986 • Consent judgment March 1987

  8. The new election method • Seven council members • Five from wards • One majority African American ward • Four-year staggered terms • Two at large • Two-year terms

  9. Those meddling voters • Petition under GS 160A-104 • All seven at large, all two-year terms • Referendum April 15, 2003 • It passes

  10. The city goofs • Council starts to implement new election method • Extended debate over whether to inform the court • “I don’t see why the City Council of the City of Thomasville has to take this to Federal Court. Really, I don’t. It’s not our job.” • The judge is not happy • 2003 election enjoined • Election in February 2004

  11. Thomasville gets on right track • Rule 60(b) motion • NAACP opposes • Bivariate ecological regression analysis

  12. Thomasville wins • Institutional reform consent decree • Remedial • At-large election results • Lewis v. Alamance County, NC, 99 F3d 600 (4th Cir. 1996) • Different election method

  13. Lessons • Voting rights court orders are not meant to be permanent • “It is in the public interest to return control over elections to local authorities unless doing so would interfere with the voting rights of minority citizens . . . .” • Motion to vacate judgment allowed when circumstances have changed or order has served purpose • It’s the voting history, stupid

More Related