Justices looked to Shaw v. Reno for guidance as they ruled on the legality of racial gerrymandering. endstream brings together political scientists from all fields of inquiry, regions, and 79 0 obj These required cases tend to appear throughout the AP exam multiple choice. PS: Political Science and Politics is the Association's quarterly journal That argument strikes a powerful historical chord: It is unsettling how closely the North Carolina plan resembles the most egregious racial gerrymanders of the past. The purpose of "one person, one vote" is that "one man's vote in a congressional election would be worth as much as another's." HtSj@}edD J%VPJ" TQP*`?"7wX.@mg +yxRzVF!Pd(q>&90PA49n>&xj@!ii]P7iNFIk.%KDWpYD 8cmqJ%W2jiNUT*D[Gle/#Y0q~ It is true, of course, that one's vote may be more or less effective depending on the interests of the other individuals who are in one's district, and our cases recognize the reality that members of the same race often have shared interests. Only two years after Shaw v. Reno, the same five Supreme Court justices explicitly stated that racial gerrymandering violated the 14th Amendment Equal Protection Clause in Miller v. Johnson. O'Connor, joined by Rehnquist, Scalia, Kennedy, Thomas, This page was last edited on 13 April 2023, at 05:15. In 1982, the Voting Rights Act was amended to target the decrease in a specific minority's ability to ever gain a voting majority. The District Court, on remand, must determine whether there is racial gerrymandering, and if so, determine whether the plan is narrowly tailored to further a compelling governmental interest. The Equal Protection Clause is only violated when a law seeks to hurt a minority group in voting. . Today we hold only that appellants have stated a claim under the Equal Protection Clause by alleging that the North Carolina General Assembly adopted a reapportionment scheme so irrational on its face that it can be understood only as an effort to segregate voters into separate voting districts because of their race, and that the separation lacks sufficient justification. Politicians have always relied on assumptions that people in particular groups are likely to vote in a particular way when they draw new district lines, and I cannot believe that anything in today's opinion will stop them from doing so in the future. [21], In a 5-4 decision the courts ruled in favor of Shaw (the petitioner), finding that it was, in fact, unlawful to gerrymander on the basis of race. <>stream Mullane v. Central Hanover Bank & Trust Co. Cleveland Board of Education v. Loudermill, Cruzan v. Director, Missouri Department of Health, Cumming v. Richmond County Board of Education, Sipuel v. Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma, Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County, Griffin v. County School Board of Prince Edward County, Green v. County School Board of New Kent County, United States v. Montgomery County Board of Education, Alexander v. Holmes County Board of Education, Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education. PS: Political Science and Politics H1n0Ew'`/8'e-9,>HX^c!+ The VRA required an increase in the representation of minority groups. observations and information about the discipline. Nonetheless, in those cases where this cause of action is sufficiently pleaded, the State will have to justify its decision to consider race as being required by a compelling state interest, and its use of race as narrowly tailored to that interest. (2020, December 4). 4H-?JXeHxG% . If a reapportionment plan creates a district that is so irregular that the only reason for its creation is to separate voters based on race, then an Equal Protection challenge against that plan is valid. Shaw fails to give criteria for an irregular drawing. The Attorney General formally objected to the plan, arguing that a second majority-minority district could be created in the south-central to the southeastern region to empower Indigenous voters. Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District (1969), New York Times Co. v. United States (1971), Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (2010). Racial classifications with respect to voting carry particular dangers. 1995 American Political Science Association 0000035716 00000 n The decision of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina is reversed and remanded. 0000001934 00000 n What appellants object to is redistricting legislation that is so extremely irregular on its face that it rationally can be viewed only as an effort to segregate the races for purposes of voting, without regard for traditional districting principles and without sufficiently compelling justification. 0000035323 00000 n HSj0+b$!Rd/' According to the residents' complaint, racial gerrymandering prevented voters from participating in a color-blind voting process. This outlook has the potential to disenfranchise minorities, as courts may place more importance on the shape of the district, rather than the underrepresented people.[31]. Residents argued that the state had gone too far when redrawing district lines to create a second majority-minority district. The North Carolina General Assembly submitted the plan to the U.S. Attorney General for preclearance under the Voting Rights Act, but it was rejected by the US Department of Justice which was led by Attorney General Janet Reno. <>/Border[0 0 0]/Rect[81.0 617.094 129.672 629.106]/Subtype/Link/Type/Annot>> Its coverage has Appellants alleged not that the revised plan constituted a political gerrymander, nor that it violated the "one person, one vote" principle, see Reynolds v. Sims, 377 U.S. 533, 558 (1964), but that the State had created an unconstitutional racial gerrymander. To log in and use all the features of Khan Academy, please enable JavaScript in your browser. The First District was somewhat hook-shaped, beginning in the northeastern part of the state and tapering down with fingerlike extensions almost to the South Carolina border. 71 0 obj Additionally, it was noted that allowing the 12th district to be drawn in that manner would be setting a dangerous precedent in our democratic system in which we are attempting to reach equality. There is thus no theoretical inconsistency in having two distinct approaches to equal protection analysis, one for cases of electoral districting and one for most other types of state governmental decisions. How would both views of the situation be similar. Traditional civil rights groups--the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, and the Mexican American Legal Defense Fund--submitted amicus curiae briefs in favor of the minority districts, and groups with long histories of opposition to quota programs--Washington Legal Foundation and the American Jewish Congress--argued against them. information, and professional opportunities. APSA The Democratic National Committee maintained that the minority districts were constitutional, while the Republican National Committee argued that they were not. It gave an advantage to the minority group. 0000041724 00000 n 0000007872 00000 n The case of Shaw v. Reno is significant because it created limitations on racial gerrymandering. To help with your productivity, especially during the last few days before the exam, you should use a, New York Times Co v. United States (1971), Cases Involving the Equal Protection Clause, Cases Involving Districting & Representation. He also stated that drawing districts on the basis of race could prove to be beneficial for minority communities. endobj "Highly irregular" districts are called into question but Shaw does not unpack what that means. Specifically, it signals a pulling away from using the Equal Protection Clause to benefit black Americans, and rather provides some fodder for those who want to claim that laws benefiting black Americans in particular constitute reverse discrimination. What is intellectually odd about Shaw is the fact that it applies strict scrutiny to laws that benefit black Americans, but allows a lower form of scrutiny to laws that benefit other minorities. For example, a Georgia court ruled that a district of average appearance was invalidated, but North Carolina's snake-like shaped district which could be described as irregular was upheld. North Carolina's initial reapportionment effort included one district purposefully constructed to have a majority of black voters. <>stream endobj Direct link to Declan Wilcoxon's post if someone is in a distri, Posted 2 days ago. 78 0 obj Washington v. Davis(1976). Therefore, it should not apply to the White voters who brought this case. 77 0 obj The US Department of Justice, led by Attorney General Janet Reno , rejected North Carolina's district plan, instructing the state assembly to add another majority-minority district in . "[15], After the General Assembly passed legislation creating the second district, a group of White voters in North Carolina, led by Ruth O. Shaw, sued on the grounds that the district was an unconstitutional gerrymander. The Court found that race could not be the deciding factor when drawing districts. [19] It was also argued that the racial gerrymandering hindered the voters from having a blind process of voting. A federal court upheld the plan as not violating the "one person one vote" principle nor violating the Equal Protection Clause. 0000039011 00000 n The Twelfth District received even harsher criticism. 0000035151 00000 n Hirabayashi v. United States(1943). The State Assembly wanted this 12 th seat to be a majority . [28], In the aftermath of the Shaw v. Reno decision, the Supreme Court reexamined the topic of racial gerrymandering in the other court cases. You will be asked to compare one of the required cases (for which no information will be provided) with a case that is presented to you on the exam. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/shaw-v-reno-4768502. It included all or portions of twenty-eight counties. An attorney on behalf of North Carolina argued that the general assembly had created the second district in an attempt to better comply with requests from the Attorney General in accordance with the Voting Rights Act. 70 0 obj Plaintiffs in this case challenge the plan as an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander. Shaw sued on the basis that the plan violated several constitutional principles, including the 14th Amendment Equal Protection Clause, which guarantees equal protection under law for all citizens, regardless of race. In Reynolds v. Sims (1964) the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that states must create legislative districts that each have a substantially equal number of voters to comply with the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Despite their invocation of the ideal of a "color-blind" Constitution, seePlessy v. Ferguson(1896) (Harlan, J., dissenting), appellants appear to concede that race-conscious redistricting is not always unconstitutional. That concession is wise: This Court never has held that race-conscious state decisionmaking is impermissible inallcircumstances. [22] It included that the Supreme Court of the United States and the federal government that allowed states to find any possible way to comply to the Voting Rights Act of 1965, even if it meant having a strangely structured district like this one which Reno argued against. Ruth Shaw and four other white North Carolina voters filed suit against the U.S. attorney general and various North Carolina officials, claiming that race-based redistricting violated, among other provisions, the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause. ThoughtCo, Dec. 4, 2020, thoughtco.com/shaw-v-reno-4768502. The Supreme Court continues to hear cases about gerrymandering and racially motivated districts. Partisan loyalty is likely to be highest in the election of a state legislator. 0000008690 00000 n Its central purpose is to prevent the States from purposefully discriminating between individuals on the basis of race. We express no view as to whether appellants successfully could have challenged such a district under the Fourteenth Amendment. 0000003021 00000 n Direct link to ra110220's post How would both views of t. While most APSA members are scholars who teach and conduct Q|,86r[aHb94WS%jw;D1};hs,aTd%Q iP+-h#MC,( - The right asserted is within the reach of judicial protection under the Fourteenth Amendment." <>stream He argued that drawing districts based on race in order to increase minority representation could serve an important government interest. [29] Likewise, Miller v. Johnson is another case that was influenced by Shaw. However, five white North Carolina voters filed a lawsuit against federal and state officials. Racial classifications of any sort pose the risk of lasting harm to our society. Founded in 1903, the American Political Science Association is the major professional evolved since its introduction in 1968 to include critical analyses of The Court offers no adequate justification for treating the narrow category of bizarrely shaped district claims differently from other districting claims. But we have held that such principles are not constitutionally required, with the consequence that their absence cannot justify the distinct constitutional regime put in place by the Court today. Shaw's group claimed that drawing districts based on race violated the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Bush administration rejected this plan on the grounds that it gave blacks insufficient congressional representation. As the journal of 0000031101 00000 n [3] Through this process, political parties can draw the boundaries of districts to favor their party's candidate as they allow for extra seats to be won. Accordingly, they held that plaintiffs were not entitled to relief under the Constitution's Equal Protection Clause. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. h0dp0d-?+X.ItHg'6Hx50W;{nJc2u$fPvc]r+T+r;O9K_,^|[ Y Star Athletica, L.L.C. Justice Sandra Day OConnor delivered the 5-4 decision. Today, the Court recognizes a new cause of action under which a State's electoral redistricting plan that includes a configuration "so bizarre" that it "rationally cannot be understood as anything other than an effort to separate voters into different districts on the basis of race [without] sufficient justification" will be subjected to strict scrutiny. JUSTICE O'CONNOR DELIVERED THE OPINION OF THE COURT. 0000043223 00000 n This decision played a role in deciding many future cases, including Bush v. Vera and Miller v. Johnson. Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad Co. Harper v. Virginia State Board of Elections, San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez, Massachusetts Board of Retirement v. Murgia, New York City Transit Authority v. Beazer. A group of five white residents of Durham county, North Carolina, headed by Ruth Shaw, challenged the redistricting plan in federal district court as an act of racial gerrymandering that violated various provisions of the Constitution, including the equal protection clause. Madison (1803)-Shaw v. Reno (1993) A Gave check and balance power to the Supreme Court-Ruled that North Carolina violated the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment B Declared that states did not have the power to tax the federal government-Prohibited oddly-shaped majority-minority districts 66 0 obj 1, Schuette v. Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Students for Fair Admissions v. President and Fellows of Harvard College, Personnel Administrator of Massachusetts v. Feeney, Mississippi University for Women v. Hogan. We have rejected such perceptions elsewhere as impermissible racial stereotypes. By perpetuating such notions, a racial gerrymander may exacerbate the very patterns of racial bloc voting that majority-minority districting is sometimes said to counteract. <>stream 0000004467 00000 n Fast Facts: Shaw v. Reno Case Argued: April 20, 1993 Decision Issued: June 28, 1993 It reinforces the perception that members of the same racial group--regardless of their age, education, economic status, or the community in which the live--think alike, share the same political interests, and will prefer the same candidates at the polls. 0000006041 00000 n 0000005358 00000 n endstream On the same reasoning, I would affirm the District Court's dismissal of appellants' claim in this instance. 83 0 obj [2], Racial gerrymandering even for remedial purposes, may balkanize us into competing racial factions; it threatens to carry us further from the goal of a political system in which race no longer matters-a goal that the Fourteen and Fifteenth Amendments embody, and to which the Nation continues to aspire. -Shaw, 509 U.S. at 657[23]. v. Reno, Attorney General, et al", "Shaw v. Reno [Shaw I] | Case Brief for Law Students", "Court Accepts a Crucial Redistricting Case", "From Shaw v. Reno to Miller v. Johnson: Minority Representation and State Compliance with the Voting Rights Act", "Shaw v. Reno and the Future of Voting Rights", "The History Of Redistricting In Georgia", Lucas v. Forty-Fourth Gen. The only justification I can imagine would be the preservation of "sound districting principles," such as compactness and contiguity. It is for these reasons that race-based districting by our state legislatures demands close judicial scrutiny. endobj <>stream Accordingly, the State devised a redistricting plan that created one majority-black district. If you're seeing this message, it means we're having trouble loading external resources on our website. They did not even claim to be white. 0000001076 00000 n The State of North Carolina, in response to the U.S. Attorney Generals, Five white North Carolina voters sued, alleging that the States, The District Court dismissed the suit, finding that race-based districting is not prohibited by the, The U.S. Supreme Court reversed that decision, holding that the case should not have been dismissed because the voters made a valid claim under the. of Ed. Ruth Shaw and four other white North Carolina voters filed suit against the U.S. attorney general and various North Carolina officials, claiming that race-based redistricting violated, among other provisions, the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause. Additionally, he noted the voting interests of those who brought the case had not been violated. Racial gerrymandering, even for remedial purposes, may balkanize us into competing racial factions; it threatens to carry us further from the goal of a political system in which race no longer matters--a goal that the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments embody, and to which the Nation continues to aspire. Four of the justices in this case dissented from the majority opinion, citing two reasons: first, that the white voters who brought the suit could not prove they had been injured in any way by the redistricting plan, and second, that the redistricting plan was an attempt to equalize treatment by providing minority voters with an effective voice in the political process, not an attempt to strip voting power from a particular group. Our focus is on appellants' claim that the State engaged in unconstitutional racial gerrymandering. Constitutional Law for a Changing America Resource Center, 13. What are the advantages and disadvantages of majority-minority districts? Dist. The majority found that North Carolinas twelfth district was so extremely irregular that its creation suggested some sort of racial bias. The constitutional provision central to the landmark case of Shaw v. Reno is the 14th Amendment's equal protection clause. ?#)i=`E+.J /Jiaza[-!Qi+&[;u,?Ua| \KP9,AR `` He detailed that the 12th district was ultimately drawn to benefit a minority group hence making the strict scrutiny applied to feel unreasonable. They alleged that the district lines were so dramatically irregular that they constituted an unconstitutional racial gerrymander. endobj Decided in 1962, the ruling established the standard of "one person, one vote" and opened the door for the Court to rule on districting cases. This item is part of a JSTOR Collection. 0000008244 00000 n T 4V,q+P#8}0dA)^U>UL]UDy%v5q>qcec"fzhzsd={^p~q 60I G$5?oIy3es/*@.f@_M8_E !tX@Q6IJO@(J(N/W$vw'w,6( DF 0000039375 00000 n The decision was part of the Warren Court's series of major cases on civil rights in the 1950s and 1960s, and it is associated with establishing the "one person, one vote" rule. While not dispositive, "bizarrely shaped" districts are strongly indicative of racial intent." from the NCSL Shelby County v. Holder (2013) The court ruled in a 5-4 decision that redistricting based on race must be held to a standard of strict scrutiny under the equal protection clause. Since there is no justification for the departure here from the principles that continue to govern electoral districting cases generally in accordance with our prior decisions, I would not respond to the seeming egregiousness of the redistricting now before us by untethering the concept of racial gerrymander in such a case from the concept of harm exemplified by dilution. 0000006832 00000 n Such approval would be forthcoming only if the plan did not jeopardize minority representation. Arlington Heights v. Metropolitan Housing Development Corp.(1977). [10] This changed with the passing of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which outlawed these racially discriminatory practices and required government supervision for states that had less than 50 percent of non-White citizens registered to vote. Drawing on the "one person, one vote" principle, this Court recognized that "[t]he right to vote can be affected by adilutionof voting power as well as by an absolute prohibition on casting a ballot." In the decision, the court ruled in a 54 majority that redistricting based on race must be held to a standard of strict scrutiny under the equal protection clause and on the basis that it violated the fourteenth Amendment because it was drawn solely based on race.[2]. As long as members of racial groups have the commonality of interest implicit in our ability to talk about concepts like <"minority voting strength," and "dilution of minority votes," cf.Thornburg v. Gingles(1986), and as long as racial bloc voting takes place, legislators will have to take race into account in order to avoid dilution of minority voting strength in the districting plans they adopt.
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