0000003285 00000 n {EDa?_ @e_&&>s `0aq1,dZgvAA!ac h6x1La4`j`5z 0 b$`l9Y#5 D $J The Democratic National Committee maintained that the minority districts were constitutional, while the Republican National Committee argued that they were not. In districting, by contrast, the mere placement of an individual in one district instead of another denies no one a right or benefit provided to others. The Civil Rights Act of 1866: History and Impact, 5 Key Events in Affirmative Action History, Reynolds v. Sims: Supreme Court Case, Arguments, Impact, Sex Discrimination and the U.S. Constitution, Civil Rights Legislation and Supreme Court Cases, Women's Rights and the Fourteenth Amendment, Baker v. Carr: Supreme Court Case, Arguments, Impact. endobj endstream Direct link to megamanwhiz's post On one hand, using the sh, Posted 3 years ago. Accordingly, they held that plaintiffs were not entitled to relief under the Constitution's Equal Protection Clause. The fact that it now chooses to apply strict scrutiny when a law is meant to benefit a race that has been the subject of historical discrimination makes no sense. HSj0+b$!Rd/' For much of our Nation's history, that right sadly has been denied to many because of race. If the allegation of racial gerrymandering remains uncontradicted, the District Court further must determine whether the North Carolina plan is narrowly tailored to further a compelling governmental interest. The resulting district was strangely structured and did not follow reapportionment guidelines which highlighted the importance of compactness, contiguousness, geographical boundaries, or political subdivisions." observations and information about the discipline. In the 1992 elections voters in both districts selected black representatives. 0000003559 00000 n [27] While Shaw failed to set clear criteria for gerrymandering, Shaw impacted the future of voting rights.The significance of the Shaw v. Reno decision is heavily debated but it is known that it had a lasting impact on how the Voting Rights Act was going to be enforced and the structure of the U.S. political system. 68 0 obj A reapportionment plan that includes in one district individuals who belong to the same race, but who are otherwise widely separated by geographical and political boundaries, and who may have little in common with one another but the color of their skin, bears an uncomfortable resemblance to political apartheid. endobj A special three-judge district court dismissed the suit against both the attorney general and the state officials. contemporary political phenomena by authors working within their own In its 1993 decision, the Supreme Court agreed, ruling that race cannot be the predominant factor in creating districts. "One person, one vote" requires congressional districts, to the extent possible, to be equally populated so that each vote carries with it the same amount of influence at the ballot box. "Shaw v. Reno: Supreme Court Case, Arguments, Impact." 77 0 obj Spitzer, Elianna. Shaw appealed. [18], Shaw along with other five North Carolina residents filed an action against the state, declaring that the state had created an unconstitutional racial gerrymandering violating the Fourteenth Amendment. In addition, any affected American citizen that felt that they are being affected by the Voting Rights Act can file a lawsuit stating that it violates Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act which led rise to the case. the political question and the role of the SCOTUS) gerrymandering (though this is secondary) "one man, one vote" Shaw v. Reno (1993) Used equal protection clause in the 14th amendment to 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. 0000039011 00000 n Despite this, voter rights are being controlled by district shapes in the redistricting process. Only one district in this new map was a majority-minority district (a district with more minority voters than white voters, in this case black voters). 0000006436 00000 n [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. Direct link to Cameron Christensen's post I'm struggling with a phr, Posted 5 years ago. 0000003836 00000 n [28], In the aftermath of the Shaw v. Reno decision, the Supreme Court reexamined the topic of racial gerrymandering in the other court cases. In the absence of an allegation of such harm, I would affirm the judgment of the District Court. The creation of a majority-black district makes up for centuries of discrimination. The U.S. Supreme Court acknowledged probable jurisdiction. "[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. 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. evolved since its introduction in 1968 to include critical analyses of He detailed that the 12th district was ultimately drawn to benefit a minority group hence making the strict scrutiny applied to feel unreasonable. The group claimed that the districts were racial gerrymanders that violated the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. 0000001076 00000 n 0000007872 00000 n (1986) (teacher layoffs), electoral districting calls for decisions that nearly always require some consideration of race for legitimate reasons where there is a racially mixed population. The Court found that race could not be the deciding factor when drawing districts. Founded in 1903, the American Political Science Association is the major professional Under the Voting Rights Act, the State had to get approval for any congressional redistricting plan. [26] Using the Shaw v. Reno decision, the justices decided that using racial reasons for redistricting is unconstitutional. Between 1962-1964, the Warren Court created a law known as "one person, one vote" as a right protected under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. 0000002471 00000 n Justice Souter noted that the Court seemed to be suddenly applying strict scrutiny to a law that aimed to increase representation amongst a historically discriminated group. [19] It was also argued that the racial gerrymandering hindered the voters from having a blind process of voting. We also do not decide whether appellants' complaint stated a claim under constitutional provisions other than the Fourteenth Amendment. By ruling in this manner, the Court actively overturned a past ruling on the applicability of the Equal Protection Clause. 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. = kd41Ss!9Q We express no view as to whether appellants successfully could have challenged such a district under the Fourteenth Amendment. 52 U.S.C. 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. research in colleges and universities in the U.S. and abroad, one-fourth work In their complaint, appellants did not claim that the General Assembly's reapportionment plan unconstitutionally "diluted" white voting strength. 0000003990 00000 n endstream 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. H1n0Ew'`/8'e-9,>HX^c!+ In response, the state legislature revised the plan in a way that created two districts (the First and the Twelfth) that would have a majority of black voters. endobj After the 1990 census, the North Carolina General Assembly redrew its congressional districts to account for changes in population. How would both views of the situation be similar. [25] Shaw also does not add or address the criteria needed for creating districts. What are the advantages and disadvantages of majority-minority districts? Because of previous acts of racial discrimination, North Carolina fell under the provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which mandated that any redistricting plan adopted by the state legislature be submitted to the U.S. Justice Department or the District Court for the District of Columbia for approval. [8], In 1870, following the Civil war and the abolishment of slavery, the 15th amendment was passed, giving all United States citizens the right to vote regardless of race, color, or previous conditions of servitude. [2], The difference between constitutional and unconstitutional gerrymanders has nothing to do with whether they are based on assumptions about the groups they affect, but whether their purpose is to enhance the power of the group in control of the districting process at the expense of any minority group, and thereby to strengthen the unequal distribution of electoral power. - Shaw, 509 U.S. at 678[23], While Shaw intended to construct limitations on using race to gerrymander districts, it fell short to live up to those expectations. These required cases tend to appear throughout the AP exam multiple choice. In a 1993 ruling, Shaw v. Reno, the Supreme Court first recognized a claim of racial gerrymandering, holding that the challengers to a redistricting plan had stated a claim under the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution. society for individuals engaged in the study of politics and government. Justice O'Connor applied strict scrutiny which asks the court to determine whether a race-based classification is narrowly tailored, has a compelling government interest and offers the "least restrictive" means of achieving that governmental interest. It is, therefore, unclear how to prove when a shape is bizarre enough to constitute a clear racial motive, making it hard for courts to decide on rulings. If you're seeing this message, it means we're having trouble loading external resources on our website. trailer While most APSA members are scholars who teach and conduct For terms and use, please refer to our Terms and Conditions The question before us is whether appellants have stated a cognizable claim. Appellants contended that the General Assembly's revised reapportionment plan violated several provisions of the United States Constitution, including the Fourteenth Amendment. This case was unlike others since the Voting Right Act, because it now didn't hinder the redistricting and impediment of the minority groups. North Carolina's 12th congressional district, League of United Latin American Citizens v. Perry, Alabama Legislative Black Caucus v. Alabama, List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 509, "Race and Redistricting: Drawing Constitutional Lines after, Congressional Redistricting and the Voting Rights Act: A Legal Overview, "Shaw v. Reno: Supreme Court Case, Arguments, Impact", "gerrymandering | Definition, Litigation, & Facts | Britannica", "What Is Gerrymandering? 0000022342 00000 n 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. <>stream Racial Gerrymanding and the 14th Amendment, Wikimedia Commons / United States Department of the Interior. Shaw fails to give criteria for an irregular drawing. 78 0 obj The proposed 12th district was 160 miles (260km) long, winding through the state to connect various areas having in common only a large Black population and cut through five counties which split into three voting districts. The Twelfth District received even harsher criticism. This is altogether antithetical to our system of representative democracy. Following is the case brief for Shaw v. Reno, 509 U.S. 630 (1993). [9] Some of these methods included poll taxes, which many could not afford, literacy tests, that many could not pass, and grandfather clauses, which stated that one can only vote if their grandfather voted. Star Athletica, L.L.C. HSm0@7p(pF 2B Vf$S'16}x;IDI+_UH1K=,a*}# !N5tt o(VbnPNPo>_tl`!| -E(:CQ TiNlGhWIz64^c{*25Ys,o%6Ai95m=[hv/Ak fasl|`  If any state wanted to change any voting rules, they had to receive pre-clearance to ensure no new rule was racist. At some points the district was no wider than Interstate 85, prompting one state legislator to remark that if "you drove down the interstate with both car doors open, you'd kill most of the people in the district." Shaw's group claimed that drawing districts based on race violated the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. <>/Border[0 0 0]/Rect[145.74 211.794 214.836 223.806]/Subtype/Link/Type/Annot>> It is known as the "one person, one vote" case. R`W_2}aR?)Z~[J&]TB5{j({^M[%&(R^#HOa OH@5-w1-$fdY1s2J'00_8fb6XzzJ9GMRAb' 8rXzO qGu){yHj"b4|M,J:d!&0,!Y9}q_@,*,a6J^R\HU![:2. 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. 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. 0000035151 00000 n 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. In contrast, Reno, the Attorney General, argued that the district would allow for minority groups to have a voice in elections. <>stream One need look no further than the Voting Rights Act to understand that this may be required, and we have held that race may constitutionally be taken into account in order to comply with that Act. A second distinction between districting and most other governmental decisions in which race has figured is that those other decisions using racial criteria characteristically occur in circumstances in which the use of race to the advantage of one person is necessarily at the obvious expense of a member of a different race. H|S[n0)rMl}$' 15NZ),B0L ^s"(54pi( h"A:J!_,:w.Z/W-.?7T]n -dR&((2M N;P@m$QwNzaV nXu-!h?u=q'{lQJj_TfTE}! See, e.g.,Rogers v. Lodge(1982);White v. Regester(1973). endobj They were the first blacks to represent North Carolina, a state with a 20 percent black population, since 1901. 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. 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." Laws that explicitly distinguish between individuals on racial grounds fall within the core of that prohibition. Classifications of citizens on the basis of race "are by their very nature odious to a free people whose institutions are founded upon the doctrine of equality." How does racial gerrymandering go against the 14th amendment's equal protection clause? endobj It is simply not plausible for the white voters here to argue that the white majoritys influence over the political process has been canceled out. Appellants contend that redistricting legislation that is so bizarre on its face that it is "unexplainable on grounds other than race,"Arlington Heights, demands the same close scrutiny that we give other state laws that classify citizens by race. record for APSA, issues also include Association News, governance 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. Legislation that classifies a person or group of people solely based on their race is, by its nature, a threat to a system that strives to achieve equality, the majority opined. 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. The Equal Protection Clause should only be used to protect those who have been discriminated against in the past, they wrote. 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. b#HE[aF34k He also stated that drawing districts on the basis of race could prove to be beneficial for minority communities. Residents objected to the re-apportionment plan, and five White residents from Durham County, North Carolina, led by Ruth O. Shaw, filed suit against the state and the federal government. [2], Justice Souter noted the arbitrary nature of the strict scrutiny applied in this case. In Shaw v. Reno (1993), the U.S. Supreme Court questioned the use of racial gerrymandering in North Carolina's reapportionment plan. In addition to being unclear, Shaw has the ability to disenfranchise minorities. Our voting rights precedents support that conclusion. [W]e believe that reapportionment is one area in which appearances do matter. Much of the case law is devoted to the constitutional requirement of one person, one vote, but over the past 20 years, more and more of the case law has addressed the impermissible uses of race in redistricting. 10301, 10303 (f). 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. Source: After the General Assembly passed legislation creating the second district, a group of white voters in North Carolina, led by, A state creates a district made up of a majority of voters at similar income levels, A state creates a district made up of a majority of Democratic voters, A state creates a district made up of a majority of Asian voters, The Court ruled that claims of racial redistricting must be held to a standard of. 0000008244 00000 n [20] Then, the residents argued that the state had gone far this time by redrawing the district lines and creating a second district that was dominated by the minorities. 0000041724 00000 n 0000008475 00000 n All citizens may register, vote, and be represented. Therefore, such redistricting was held unconstitutional since it found intention to segregate voters by race and this segregation cannot be justified under a standard of strict scrutiny. Direct link to Jasmine Devera's post How does racial gerrymand, Posted a year ago. Hirabayashi v. United States(1943). Q|,86r[aHb94WS%jw;D1};hs,aTd%Q iP+-h#MC,( - (Hope this helped). Washington v. Davis(1976). Shaw v. Reno - 509 U.S. 630, 113 S. Ct. 2816 (1993) Rule: The Equal Protection Clause, U.S. Const. HAn1E9 1J3 rri3H M>UGw!A"mjfBWg@"Xj j5.%{KB`rW!y In 1991, a group of white voters in North Carolina challenged the state's new congressional district map, which had two majority-minority districts. endobj Its central purpose is to prevent the states from purposefully discriminating between individuals on the basis of race. <>/Border[0 0 0]/Rect[510.324 617.094 549.0 629.106]/Subtype/Link/Type/Annot>> 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. 0000006832 00000 n subfields aimed at the informed, general reader. The VRA required an increase in the representation of minority groups. news media, and private enterprise. <>/Border[0 0 0]/Rect[81.0 617.094 129.672 629.106]/Subtype/Link/Type/Annot>> Yes. The duty to govern impartially is abused when a group with power over the electoral process defines electoral boundaries solely to enhance its own political strength at the expense of any weaker group. The Court offers no adequate justification for treating the narrow category of bizarrely shaped district claims differently from other districting claims. Arlington Heights v. Metropolitan Housing Development Corp.(1977). That duty, however, is not violated when the majority acts to facilitate the election of a member of a group that lacks such power because it remains underrepresented in the state legislature - whether that group is defined by political affiliation, by common economic interests, or by religious, ethnic, or racial characteristics. At issue is whether the plan systematically dilutes the voting strength of Democratic voters statewide. . After the 1990 census, the North Carolina General Assembly was entitled to a 12th seat in the U.S. House of Representatives and redrew its congressional districts to account for the changes in population. We agree. 0000001525 00000 n Could someone help me understand how racial redistricting could give a racial group more of a voice? <>/Border[0 0 0]/Rect[282.1898 646.0332 531.5161 665.9668]/Subtype/Link/Type/Annot>> Dissents from Justices Blackmun and Stevens echoed Justice White. endobj Direct link to nikhilmenghani12's post Would fixing gerrymanderi, Posted 4 years ago. (2020, December 4). startxref SHAW v. RENO(1993) No. HtSj@}edD J%VPJ" TQP*`?"7wX.@mg +yxRzVF!Pd(q>&90PA49n>&xj@!ii]P7iNFIk.%KDWpYD 8cmqJ%W2jiNUT*D[Gle/#Y0q~ It was 160 miles long and generally corresponded to the Interstate 85 corridor. According to the College Board, these cases are essential to college courses in introductory history and politics. [4] The census marks when states can redraw their congressional district lines and in accordance with the Voting Rights Act of 1965, districts must be redrawn equally populated. Though traditional party conventions were ________, contemporary party conventions are ________. [21], Reno, the Attorney General, argued that the creation of the second district was necessary in order to follow the request of the General Assembly that required them to abide by the Voting Right Act of 1965, which would increase the representation of the minority groups and allow them to have more of a voice when voting. endstream [30], There have been controversies and misinterpretations associated with Shaw v. Reno. 0000001546 00000 n The Court has, in its prior decisions, allowed redistricting to benefit an unrepresented minority group. Justices looked to Shaw v. Reno for guidance as they ruled on the legality of racial gerrymandering. 0000035716 00000 n I believe that the Equal Protection Clause is violated when the State creates the kind of uncouth district boundaries seen inKarcher v. Daggett(1983),Gomillion v. Lightfoot)(1960), and this case, for the sole purpose of making it more difficult for members of a minority group to win an election.
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