Race-Conscious Remedies
Resource Site 
 
 
Voting Rights Resource Page
 
 
     The future of Voting Rights remedies for minorities has been all but predictable after the Supreme Court's Shaw v. Hunt decision in 1996. Although states are not prevented from being race-conscious in their districting procedures, they may not consider race as a predominant factor in such district drawing.  Furthermore, even though the burden is on the plaintiffs – which these days are white state residents funded and supported by conservative ant-affirmative action organizations – to prove that the state relied on race in such a substantial manner as to disregard customary and traditional districting practices (as a prima facie matter), such a burden of proof is extremely easy to meet. In fact, the burden now put on these non-minority plaintiffs is so low that it creates an asymmetric standard when compared to the standard imposed on minority citizens who sought a remedy to the voting rights discrimination that they faced as minority citizens of the state.  This asymmetric standard subjects the majority-minority districts drawn as a remedy under the Voting Rights Act of 1968 to the same strict scrutiny developed to protect minority voting rights by allowing plaintiffs to easily establish a prima facie cases against such districts. 

     This section of the race-conscious remedies web page provides the reader with resources that will put the voting rights/districting issue in a clearer perspective.  This site not only provides the reader with the historical context of voting rights protections for minorities, but also offers resources to alternative remedial measures to protect minorities in this day of civil rights retrenchment.  This site promises to be informative and enlightening on voting rights jurisprudence and on the issues that face minorities in the field of voting rights as we approach the new millennium.
 
 
To view an area of this page, click on one of the resources below.
   
 
 
 
 

 

 

Voting Cases
 
Historical Cases Most Recent Cases
Nixon v. Herndon, 
273 U.S. 536 (1927)		 Shaw v. Reno, 
509 U.S. 630 (1993) [Shaw I]
Smith v. Allwright, 
321 U.S. 649 (1943)		 Miller v. Johnson,  
115 S.Ct. 2745 (1995)
Gomillion v. Lightfoot, 
364 U.S. 339 (1960)		 United States v. Hays, 
515 U.S. 737 (1995)
Wright v. Rockefeller, 
376 U.S. 52 (1965)		 Bush v. Vera,   
116 S.Ct. 1941 (1996)
South Carolina v. Katzenbach,
383 U.S. 301 (1966) 
 Shaw v. Hunt,   
116 S.Ct. 1894 (1996) [Shaw II]
Gaston County v. United States, 
395 U.S. 285 (1969)		 Abrams v. Johnson, 
117 S.Ct. 1925 (1997)		 
 
 King v. State Board of Elections, 
979 F. Supp. 619 (N.D.Ill. 1997)
  Goosby v. Town Bd. of Town of  
Hempstead, N.Y.,  
981 F. Supp. 751 (E.D.N.Y. 1997)
  Addy v. Newton County, Miss., 
2 F. Supp. 2d 861 (S.D.Miss. 1997)
  Harvell v. Blytheville School Dist.  
No. 5, 
126 F.3d 1038 (8th Cir. 1997)
  Rural West Tennessee African  
American Affairs Council, Inc. v. Sundquist, 
29 F. Supp. 2d 448 (W.D.Tenn. 1998)
   
   
  *Cases provided courtesy of FindLaw.
 
 
 

 

   

Journal and News Articles
 
Out of the Barrio: Toward a New Politics of Hispanic Assimilation by Linda Chavez – Anti-affirmative action proponent suggests conservative alternatives to affirmative action in voting.
The Voting Rights Act: 30 Years Later by Wendy Grossman 
A Voting Rights Act at War With Itself by  Steven Hill
Voting Rights And The Political Participation Of African Americans Annotated Bibliography by Craig Newburger, 3rd Year Law Student  

The University of Dayton School of Law, Fall 1998
Black Members Of School Board Queried On Votes, Groups Urge Them To Rethink Their Positions On Redistricting by Stan Swofford, Greensboro News & Record, Friday, May 7, 1999
Redistricting Shakes School Board Member's Plans by Linda Chion-Kenney, St. Petersburg Times, Wednesday, April 28, 1999
Where To Draw The Line On Minority Voting, High Court Today Debates Legality Of Louisiana School Redistricting by Warren Richey, Christian Science Monitor, Monday, April 26, 1999 
Parents Blast Redistricting Lines, The Guilford County Board Of Education Is Scheduled To Hold One More Hearing Before Voting On A Final Redistricting Plan by Nancy H. Mclaughlin, Greensboro News & Record, Wednesday, April 21, 1999
Loyalties On Line In City's Plan To Redraw Districts Campaigns Hinge On Tuesday Vote by Blake Fontenay The Commercial Appeal, Sunday, March 14, 1999
Court Urged To Alter Judicial Voting; Black Judges Kept Out, Appeal Says by Ben L. Kaufman, The Cincinnati Enquirer, Thursday, March 11, 1999
NAACP: Leave District Lines Alone by Gary Hendricks, The Atlanta Journal - The Atlanta Constitution, Thursday, March 4, 1999 
Starr Asks Redrawing Of District A New House: State Senator Says He's Only Seeking A Technicality, But Skeptics Will Oppose The Move On Racial Grounds by Gary Hendricks, The Atlanta Journal - The Atlanta Constitution, Thursday, February 25, 1999 
Redistricting Plans Short Of Ideal Series: Columns by Martin Dyckman, St. Petersburg Times, Thursday, February 4, 1999
Justices Will Review Voting Rights Case Appeal: Redistricting Didn't Help Minorities, Chicago Tribune, Saturday, January 23, 1999
Justices Agree To Study Louisiana Voting Case, Stage Set For Decision On Minority Rights, The Dallas Morning News, Saturday, January 23, 1999
La. School Board Elections Focus Of Voting-Rights Case by Richard Carelli, The Baton Rouge Advocate, Saturday, January 23, 1999
High Court Rules Counties Need OK To Change Elections by Steve Lash, Houston Chronicle, Thursday, January 21, 1999
Legislature Bill Would End Legislative Gerrymandering Its Sponsors, Including Tucson's Cunningham, Say Incumbents Redraw District Lines To Their Benefit by David Madrid, The Tucson Citizen, Tuesday, January 19, 1999
Black Congressman Wins Loyalty Of Rural Whites, Popularity Of Georgia's Bishop Is Evidence Of Change In Southern Politics by Kevin Sack, Austin American-Statesman, Wednesday, December 30, 1998 
 
Race-Conscious Districting: Why It's Needed, Why It Works – A Public Policy Alert from the American Civil Liberties Union, May 1995
 
 
 
 
  

     

Law Review Articles
 
TYRANNY OF THE JUDICIARY: JUDICIAL DILUTION OF CONSENT UNDER SECTION 2 OF THE VOTING RIGHTS ACT by James Thomas Tucker
William and Mary Bill of Rights Journal, February, 1999, 7 Wm. & Mary Bill Rts. J. 443
SWEEP AROUND YOUR OWN FRONT DOOR: EXAMINING THE ARGUMENT FOR LEGISLATIVE AFRICAN AMERICAN REPARATIONS by Tuneen E. Chisolm
University of Pennsylvania Law Review, January, 1999, 147 U. Pa. L. Rev. 677 

The author demonstrates that Blacks operating in a third party could constitutionally obtain the creation of majority-Black congressional districts, a result that the Court has denied them when they act within one of the major parties. Professor Smith argues that such an anomaly encourages Black exit from the two-party system. He argues that the Court's failure to insist on an injury to voting in the racial gerrymandering case makes it impossible for the Court to fashion relief that is consistent with states' interest in two-party stability.
ONE NATION INDIVISIBLE; HOW ETHNIC SEPARATISM THREATENS AMERICA, BY J. HARVIE WILKINSON (Book Review) by Michael Foster
Federal Lawyer, January, 1999, 46-JAN Fed. Law. 54
IS THIS AMERICA? THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA AND THE RIGHT TO VOTE by Jamin B. Raskin   
Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review, Winter, 1998, 34 Harv. C.R.-C.L. L. Rev. 39
THE WAY OUT: A LEGAL STANDARD FOR IMPOSING ALTERNATIVE ELECTORAL SYSTEMS AS VOTING RIGHTS REMEDIES by Steven J. Mulroy  

33 Harv. C.R.-C.L. L. Rev. 333, 339-43 (1998) 

Advocating the use of non-traditional systems of voting, such as cumulative voting, limited voting, and preference voting, to enhance minority representation.
ANNUAL REPORT OF THE ELECTION LAW AND REAPPORTIONMENT SUBCOMMITTEES-COLORBLIND JURISPRUDENCE : THE DEMISE OF RACIAL RORSCHACHISM AND SEPARATISM by Benjamin E. Griffith  

30 urblaw 995 (1998)
THE FUTURE OF RACIAL REDISTRICTING IN VOTING: CLARK v. CALHOUN COUNTY, MISSISSIPPI by Paul H. Dickerson 
In the Public Interest, 1997-1998, 16 In Pub. Interest 129
GROUPS, REPRESENTATION, AND RACE-CONSCIOUS DISTRICTING: A CASE OF THE EMPEROR’S NEW CLOTHES by Lani Guinier
71 Tex.L.Rev. 1589 (1993)
NO TWO SEATS: THE ELUSIVE QUEST FOR POLITICAL EQUALITY by Lani Guinier  

77 Va. L. Rev. 1413, 1513-14 (1991)  

Advocating an at-large voting scheme and legislative rules that allow cumulative voting and encourage consensus decisions to help equalize the position of minorities and other underrepresented groups.
 
 
 
 
 

 

 
   

Food For Thought
Discussions on Topics of Interest in Voting
 
In light of the Supreme Courts most recent decisions curtailing the advances made in voting rights through the creation of majority-minority districts under the Voting Rights Act of 1968, some civil rights scholars and affirmative action advocates propose that minorities consider alternative measures to protect the strength of their vote.  Lani Guinier has suggested a super-majority type of voting system on a state and local level whereby elected representatives would have to consider minority interests in order to get legislation passed.  Others have even reconsidered the idea of forming a third party--one responsive to the interests of minorities in this country.  Are such alternative measures feasible in light of the low voter turn out among minorities?  Would such measures encourage higher minority voter turnout?  How can advocates of such a system(s) engage minority support to enact policy to provide for these or other alternative measures? 

Enter Food For Thought Instruction Page with a Link to Discussion Forum 
 
 
 

   

 

Links to Other Voting Rights Pages
Citizens for Proportional Representation — Provides contact information for those interested in Proportional Representation in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Voting Rights Review, Summer 1997 — Learn about developments in voting rights law and practice from the Southern Regional Council. 
 
 

   

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
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This page was last updated on 22 May 1999