UVALDE CONSOLIDATED INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DIST. v. U.S., 451 U.S. 1002 (1981)
U.S. Supreme Court
UVALDE CONSOLIDATED INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DIST. v. U.S. , 451 U.S. 1002 (1981)451 U.S. 1002
UVALDE CONSOLIDATED INDEPENDENT
SCHOOL DISTRICT et al. v. UNITED STATES
No. 80-1237 Supreme Court of the United States May 18,
1981
On petition for writ of certiorari to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
The petition for writ of certiorari is denied.
Justice REHNQUIST, dissenting.
In this case, the Attorney General has filed a complaint under 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, 79 Stat. 437, as amended in 1975, 42 U.S.C . 1973,1 alleging that petitioner School District's at-large system of electing members " 'has been implemented with the intent and purpose of causing . . . irreparable injury to Mexican-American voters . . . by effectively and purposefully precluding them from meaningful access to the political process. . . .' " 625 F.2d 547, 548-549 (CA5 1980). The complaint further alleges:
"[T]he seven member Board of Trustees of the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District is elected at-large;
"approximately fifty percent of the population of the school district is Mexican-American, but Mexican-American voters' residences are concentrated in one part of the City of Uvalde;
"only one Mexican-American has ever been elected to the Board of Trustees and currently no Mexican-Americans serve on the Board;
"voting is normally along racial lines;
"the Board has discriminated against Mexican-Americans in the past by operating intentionally segregated elementary schools and is unresponsive to the needs of the Mexican-American community;
"as a result of the school district's election system, Mexican- Americans have less opportunity than 'whites' to participate in the political process and to elect candidates of their choice to the Board." Id., at 549 (footnote omitted).
The United States District Court for the Western District of Texas dismissed the suit for failure to state a claim upon which relief could be granted. 461 F. Supp. 117 (1978). It concluded that the Fifteenth Amendment, upon which 2 of the Act rests,3 applies only to practices which directly affect access to the ballot and is thus not available to challenge at-large election districts on the basis of so-called "vote dilution."
The Court of Appeals reversed, finding that respondent had
stated a cause of action under the Fifteenth Amendment. It
canvassed the various opinions in Mobile v. City of Bolden,
446 U.S. 55d 47
(1980), and concluded that a majority of this Court had held that
the Fifteenth Amendment prohibits not just the actual prevention or
hindrance of people from voting, but also purposeful vote dilution.
The Court of Appeals, however, did not rest its decision on that
ground alone. It [451 U.S. 1002 , 1004]
U.S. Supreme Court
UVALDE CONSOLIDATED INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DIST. v. U.S. , 451 U.S. 1002 (1981) 451 U.S. 1002 UVALDE CONSOLIDATED INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT et al. v. UNITED STATESNo. 80-1237 Supreme Court of the United States May 18, 1981 On petition for writ of certiorari to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. The petition for writ of certiorari is denied. Justice REHNQUIST, dissenting. In this case, the Attorney General has filed a complaint under 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, 79 Stat. 437, as amended in 1975, 42 U.S.C . 1973,1 alleging that petitioner School District's at-large system of electing members " 'has been implemented with the intent and purpose of causing . . . irreparable injury to Mexican-American voters . . . by effectively and purposefully precluding them from meaningful access to the political process. . . .' " 625 F.2d 547, 548-549 (CA5 1980). The complaint further alleges: "[T]he seven member Board of Trustees of the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District is elected at-large; "approximately fifty percent of the population of the school district is Mexican-American, but Mexican-American voters' residences are concentrated in one part of the City of Uvalde; Page 451 U.S. 1002 , 1003 "only one Mexican-American has ever been elected to the Board of Trustees and currently no Mexican-Americans serve on the Board; Page 451 U.S. 1002 , 2 "voting is normally along racial lines; "the Board has discriminated against Mexican-Americans in the past by operating intentionally segregated elementary schools and is unresponsive to the needs of the Mexican-American community; "as a result of the school district's election system, Mexican- Americans have less opportunity than 'whites' to participate in the political process and to elect candidates of their choice to the Board." Id., at 549 (footnote omitted). The United States District Court for the Western District of Texas dismissed the suit for failure to state a claim upon which relief could be granted. 461 F. Supp. 117 (1978). It concluded that the Fifteenth Amendment, upon which 2 of the Act rests,3 applies only to practices which directly affect access to the ballot and is thus not available to challenge at-large election districts on the basis of so-called "vote dilution." The Court of Appeals reversed, finding that respondent had stated a cause of action under the Fifteenth Amendment. It canvassed the various opinions in Mobile v. City of Bolden, 446 U.S. 55d 47 (1980), and concluded that a majority of this Court had held that the Fifteenth Amendment prohibits not just the actual prevention or hindrance of people from voting, but also purposeful vote dilution. The Court of Appeals, however, did not rest its decision on that ground alone. It Page 451 U.S. 1002 , 1004 looked to the 1975 amendment of 2. The court held that even if the Fifteenth Amendment does not proscribe at-large voting districts purposefully adopted to dilute the voting strength of minorities, the Fourteenth Amendment clearly does. According to the court, when Congress, pursuant to its authority to enforce the guarantees of the Fourteenth Amendment, extended 2 to protect the right to vote of linguistic minorities, it did so cognizant of the problem of vote dilution and intended to incorporate the broad reach of the Fourteenth Amendment into 2 of the Act. Thus, in the court's view, respondent had stated a cause of action under 2 of the Act as amended. Judge Hill concurred on the grounds that it was unnecessary to determine whether the Fifteenth Amendment applies to the voting practices alleged in the complaint, because the court properly found that the 1975 amendment incorporated the Fourteenth Amendment. [Footnote 4] Because I believe that the Court of Appeals has misread the language, holding, and spirit of this Court's decision in Bolden, and has misconstrued the congressional purpose behind the 1975 amendment, I dissent from the denial of the petition for certiorari. In the first place, as I read the plurality decision in Bolden, it held that the Fifteenth Amendment proscribed only the denial or the abridgment of the right to vote: When blacks "register and vote without hindrance," the provisions of the Fifteenth Amendment are thus Page 451 U.S. 1002 , 1005 satisfied. 446 U.S., at 65. In contrast to the Fourteenth Amendment, there is nothing in the Fifteenth Amendment which prohibits at-large election districts. See Beer v. United States, 425 U.S. 130, 142, n.14, 1364, n.14 (1976) ( observing that "[t]here is no decision in this Court holding a legislative apportionment or reapportionment violative of the Fifteenth Amendment"). Because the Attorney General does not allege in this case that Mexican- Americans have been prohibited or discouraged from voting, I do not believe that the Attorney General has stated a cause of action under the Fifteenth Amendment and, consequently, 2 of the Voting Rights Act. With respect to the 1975 amendment, I do not view that amendment as changing the substantive law of 2. The purpose of the change was to extend 2 protections to a new group of persons, namely, members of language minorities such as Mexican-American. See S.Rep.No. 94-295, p. 24 ( 1975), U.S.Code Cong. & Admin.News 1975, p. 774 (the amendment was made to " broaden [the Act's] special coverage to new geographic areas . . ."). Congress based the addition to 2 on its power to enforce the guarantees of the Fourteenth Amendment in order to ensure the constitutionality of the change, not to allow language minorities to challenge at-large voting districts on grounds of vote dilution. The legislative history reveals that Congress was concerned about the possibility that certain language minority groups might not be considered members of a "race or color" group protected under the Fifteenth Amendment. Thus, Congress based the 1975 " expansion amendment" on both the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments in order to "doubly insure the constitutional basis for the Act." Id., at 47- 48. In sum, the Court of Appeals quite clearly erred in concluding that the 1975 amendment to 2 incorporates the Fourteenth Amendment's prohibition of purposeful vote dilution. Even as amended, 2 simply does not permit the Attorney General to bring suits challenging at-large electoral systems. Moreover, even if 2 does incorporate the prohibitions of Page 451 U.S. 1002 , 1006 the Fourteenth Amendment, I do not believe that the Attorney General's allegations are sufficient to survive a motion to dismiss. The plurality opinion in Mobile v. City of Bolden, supra, observed that the Court of Appeals there held that a plaintiff may establish purposeful discrimination by adducing evidence that satisfies the standards announced in its earlier decision in Zimmer v. McKeithen, 485 F.2d 1297 (CA5 1973). We rejected that view: