LOPEZ ET AL. v. MONTEREY COUNTY ET AL.
No. 97-1396
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued November 2, 1998—Decided January 20, 1999
525 U.S. 266
Paul R. Q. Wolfson argued the cause for the United States as amicus curiae urging reversal. With him on the briefs were Solicitor General Waxman, Acting Assistant Attorney General Hodgkiss, Deputy Solicitor General Underwood, Mark L. Gross, Rebecca K. Troth, and Louis E. Peraertz.
Daniel G. Stone, Deputy Attorney General of California, argued the cause for the state appellee. With him on the brief were Daniel E. Lungren, Attorney General, Linda A. Cabatic, Senior Assistant Attorney General, and Marsha A. Bedwell, Supervising Deputy Attorney General. Douglas C. Holland filed a brief for appellee Monterey County.*
JUSTICE O‘CONNOR delivered the opinion of the Court.
Under the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (Act or Voting Rights Act), 79 Stat. 437, as amended,
I
The instant appeal marks the second occasion on which this Court has addressed issues arising in the course of litigation over the method for electing judges in Monterey County, and we assume familiarity with our previous decision in this case. See Lopez v. Monterey County, 519 U. S. 9 (1996).
A
Congress enacted the Voting Rights Act under its authority to enforce the Fifteenth Amendment‘s proscription against voting discrimination. The Act contains generally applicable voting rights protections, but it also places special restrictions on voting activity within designated, or “covered,” jurisdictions. Jurisdictions—States or political subdivisions—are selected for coverage if they meet specified criteria suggesting the presence of voting discrimination in
The Act subjects covered jurisdictions to special restrictions on their voting laws. Section 4(a) suspends use of a “test or device” in any jurisdiction designated for coverage.
A covered jurisdiction has two avenues available to seek the federal preclearance required under § 5. The jurisdiction may submit the proposed voting change to the Attorney General. If the Attorney General affirmatively approves the change or fails to object to it within 60 days, the change is deemed precleared and the jurisdiction may put it into effect.
In 1971, Monterey County was designated a covered jurisdiction based on findings that, as of November 1, 1968, the County maintained California‘s statewide literacy test as a prerequisite to voting and less than 50 percent of the County‘s voting age population participated in the November 1968 Presidential election. 35 Fed. Reg. 12354 (1970); 36 Fed. Reg. 5809 (1971); see also
In fact, over the last 30 years, there have been numerous changes in the structure of the County‘s trial court system and the scheme for electing judges. On November 1, 1968, Monterey County had nine judicial districts: two municipal court and seven justice court districts. As we observed in our earlier opinion, see Lopez v. Monterey County, supra, at 12, municipal court districts encompassed larger populations than their justice court counterparts, and the former districts had two judges whereas the latter had one. Moreover, justice courts were not courts of record, and their judges frequently worked part time. Each of the nine districts in place in 1968 was wholly independent, and its judges were elected at large by voters in the district in which they served.
Since 1972, however, the County‘s judicial system has undergone substantial change resulting in what is today a single, countywide municipal court served by 10 judges. Four County ordinances adopted between 1972 and 1976 reduced the number of justice court districts in the County
The next noteworthy change in the County‘s judicial election scheme occurred in 1979, with the consolidation of the County‘s three municipal court districts. On June 5, 1979, the County passed Ordinance No. 2524, which provided that the Monterey Peninsula Judicial District, North Monterey County Judicial District, and the Salinas Judicial District would be combined to form the Monterey County Municipal Court District. App. to Juris. Statement 75. The same year, the State enacted a law, apparently at the County‘s request, requiring the same merger of the municipal court districts and mapping out some of the mechanics of the new, consolidated district. 1979 Cal. Stats., ch. 694; see also § 4 (noting that “this act is in accordance with the request of a local governmental entity or entities which desired legislative authority to carry out the program specified in this act“). The state Act provides, in pertinent part, that “[t]here is in the County of Monterey, on and after the effective date of this section, a single municipal court district which embraces the former Salinas Judicial District, Monterey Peninsula Judicial District and North Monterey County Judicial District.” § 2. The 1979 changes thus left the County with one municipal court district and two justice court districts.
The final step toward a single, countywide district occurred in 1983. County Ordinance No. 2930, passed by Monterey County‘s Board of Supervisors on August 2, 1983,
The County, although covered by § 5 of the Act, failed to seek federal preclearance for any of its six consolidation ordinances. Nor did the State preclear its 1979 law that, like the County ordinance adopted the same year, directed the consolidation of the three municipal court districts. The State did seek the Attorney General‘s approval, however, for the 1983 state law authorizing additional judgeships upon the final merger of the justice courts into a single, countywide municipal court district. In the process, the State provided the Department of Justice with a copy of the County‘s 1983 consolidation ordinance. The Attorney General did not oppose the State‘s 1983 submission, and we have thus observed that this “submission may well have served to preclear the 1983 county ordinance.” Lopez v. Monterey County, 519 U. S., at 15. We noted, however, that preclearance of the County‘s 1983 ordinance probably failed to satisfy the need to preclear the preceding consolidation ordinances, ibid. (“Thus, under our precedent, these previous consolidation ordinances do not appear to have received federal preclear-
B
Appellants, Hispanic voters who reside in Monterey County, filed suit in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California on September 6, 1991, claiming that the County had failed to fulfill its § 5 obligation to preclear any of the consolidation ordinances passed between 1972 and 1983. A three-judge District Court concluded that the ordinances were voting changes requiring preclearance under § 5 and that the ordinances were unenforceable until they were precleared.
Accordingly, the County initiated proceedings before the United States District Court for the District of Columbia in an effort to preclear the ordinances. Ultimately, however, the County agreed to dismiss the suit without prejudice and to stipulate that its “Board of Supervisors is unable to establish that the [consolidation ordinances] adopted by the County between 1968 and 1983 did not have the effect of denying the right to vote to Latinos in Monterey County due to the retrogressive effect several of these ordinances had on Latino voting strength in Monterey County.” Lopez v. Monterey County, 871 F. Supp. 1254, 1256 (ND Cal. 1995) (quoting Monterey County Resolution 94-107 (Mar. 15, 1994)).
Back before the three-judge District Court in the Northern District of California, appellants and the County, working together, submitted alternatives to the districtwide voting scheme. Meanwhile, the State was allowed to intervene in the proceedings, and it opposed the proposed plans on the ground that they violated aspects of the California Constitution governing judicial elections. By late 1994, after unsuccessful attempts by the County to secure an amendment to the California Constitution, appellants and the County remained unable to formulate a judicial election
The Attorney General precleared the court‘s interim plan in March 1995, and judges were selected in a 1995 special election to serve until January 1997. Following the election, however, this Court decided Miller v. Johnson, 515 U. S. 900 (1995), which, in the District Court‘s view, cast doubt on the legality of the interim plan. Having determined that other options were not feasible, the court thus ordered a new judicial election to be held in March 1996 under a countywide voting scheme, the very scheme that the County had effected through its consolidation ordinances and that appellants had challenged in their original complaint.
This Court granted appellants’ emergency stay application and enjoined the proposed, countywide election. 516 U. S. 1104 (1996). We subsequently noted probable jurisdiction over the appeal, 517 U.S. 1118 (1996), and we reversed, Lopez v. Monterey County, 519 U. S. 9 (1996). The District Court had erred, we concluded, in directing an election to take place under a scheme that had not been precleared as required under § 5. Accordingly, we remanded the matter to the District Court and directed that “[t]he requirement of federal scrutiny should be satisfied without further delay.” Id., at 25. In so doing, we expressly declined to pass on
On remand, the State moved to dismiss appellants’ complaint on this theory, among others, and the District Court agreed that preclearance was unnecessary because the countywide scheme was now mandated by California law. No. C-91-20559-RMW (ND Cal., Dec. 19, 1997), App. to Juris. Statement 1, 4-9. Among the other grounds for dismissal raised in its motion, the State also alleged that appellants’ claims are barred by laches, that it was constitutional error to designate the County as a covered jurisdiction under § 5, and that the consolidation ordinances did not alter a voting “standard, practice, or procedure” subject to preclearance under § 5. The District Court did not address these alternative bases to dismiss appellants’ complaint, however, and we do not reach them here. The State also moved to vacate a September 25, 1996, order extending the terms of the judges elected under the 1995 interim plan. The District Court granted this request along with the State‘s motion to dismiss.
In granting the motion to dismiss, the District Court reasoned that § 5, by its own terms, creates a preclearance obligation only for covered jurisdictions. Noncovered entities, like the State, bear no responsibility to preclear voting changes that they “enact or seek to administer.” See id., at 5. “[T]he purpose of § 5 appears to be to target only those enactments by jurisdictions suspected of abridging the right to vote and not those put in force by a non-covered, superior jurisdiction.” Ibid.
Here, the District Court concluded, the 1979 state law had consolidated the three existing municipal courts and mandated that there be one municipal court district in the
We noted probable jurisdiction over the appeal from the order dismissing appellants’ complaint, 523 U. S. 1093 (1998), and we reverse.
II
A
Appellants and the County together contend that the County must obtain preclearance for changes leading to the countywide voting scheme before giving effect to this
The face of the Act itself provides the most compelling support for appellants’ claim. The phrase “seek to administer” provides no indication that Congress intended to limit § 5‘s preclearance obligations to the discretionary actions of covered jurisdictions. To the contrary, “administer” is consistently defined in purely nondiscretionary terms. See, e. g., Webster‘s Third New International Dictionary 27 (1961) (“to manage the affairs of,” “to direct or superintend the execution, use, or conduct of“); Random House Dictionary of the English Language 26 (2d ed. 1987) (“to manage (affairs, a government, etc.); have executive charge of“); Black‘s Law Dictionary 44 (6th ed. 1990) (“To manage or conduct“). The State‘s view that “administer” is intended to capture a cov-
Nor are we persuaded that Congress’ use of the word “seek” is intended to require an act of discretion by the covered jurisdiction in order to trigger the preclearance requirement. The word “seek” in this context is more readily understood as creating a temporal distinction. The Government has indicated that a covered jurisdiction need not seek preclearance before enacting legislation that would effect a voting change. See
We note, too, that this Court has elsewhere assumed that legislation from a partially covered State must be precleared to the extent that it affects covered counties. In United Jewish Organizations of Williamsburgh, Inc. v. Carey, 430 U.S. 144 (1977), we rejected a constitutional challenge brought by Hasidic residents of Kings County, New York, to a redistricting plan enacted by the state legislature. We assumed in that case that the state plan was subject to the Act‘s preclearance requirements, even though the State was not a covered jurisdiction, because Kings and other counties were themselves covered by the Act. We observed that, after the State‘s efforts to exempt its counties from the Act‘s coverage proved unsuccessful, see New York ex rel. New York County v. United States, 419 U. S. 888 (1974), “it became necessary for New York [State] to secure the approval of the Attorney General or of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia for its 1972 reapportion-
Nor have we been alone in this assumption. The Department of Justice claims to have received more than 1,300 submissions seeking to preclear state laws from the seven States that are currently partially covered: California, Florida, Michigan, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, and South Dakota. Brief for United States as Amicus Curiae in Support of Juris. Statement 13, n. 3; see also
Finally, we find it especially relevant that the Attorney General also reads § 5 as we do. According to the Government: “The Attorney General has consistently construed Section 5 to require preclearance when a covered political subdivision ‘seek[s] to administer’ an enactment of a partially covered State.” Brief for United States as Amicus Curiae 19; see also S. Rep. No. 97-417, pp. 11-12 (1982) (describing Attorney General‘s objections to laws enacted by North Carolina and South Dakota, both partially covered States). Subject to certain limitations not implicated here, see, e. g., Presley v. Etowah County Comm‘n, 502 U. S. 491, 508-509 (1992), we traditionally afford substantial deference to the Attorney General‘s interpretation of § 5 in light of her “central role... in formulating and implementing” that section. Dougherty County Bd. of Ed. v. White, 439 U.S. 32, 39 (1978); see, e. g., NAACP v. Hampton County Election Comm‘n, 470 U.S. 166, 178-179 (1985) (“Any doubt that these changes are covered by § 5 is resolved by the construction placed upon the Act by the Attorney General, which is entitled to considerable deference“); Perkins v. Matthews, supra, at 390-391 (“Our conclusion that both the location of the polling places and municipal boundary changes come
In light of the section‘s plain language and the Attorney General‘s interpretation to the same effect, we conclude that § 5‘s preclearance requirement applies to a covered county‘s nondiscretionary efforts to implement a voting change required by state law, notwithstanding the fact that the State is not itself a covered jurisdiction. Accordingly, we need not reach appellants’ alternative claim that the countywide district is in fact the product of the County‘s discretion.
B
The State also urges that requiring preclearance here would tread on rights constitutionally reserved to the States. The State contends, specifically, that § 5 could not withstand constitutional scrutiny if it were interpreted to apply to voting measures enacted by States that have not been designated as historical wrongdoers in the voting rights sphere. In the State‘s view, because California has not been designated as a covered jurisdiction, its laws are not subject to § 5 preclearance.
We have recognized that the Act, which authorizes federal intrusion into sensitive areas of state and local policymaking, imposes substantial “federalism costs.” Miller v. Johnson, 515 U. S., at 926. The Act was passed pursuant to Congress’ authority under the Fifteenth Amendment, however, and we have likewise acknowledged that the Reconstruction Amendments by their nature contemplate some intrusion into areas traditionally reserved to the States. City of Rome v. United States, 446 U. S. 156, 179 (1980). As the Court recently observed with respect to Congress’ power to legislate under the Fourteenth Amendment, “[l]egislation which deters or remedies constitutional violations can fall within the sweep of Congress’ enforcement power even if in
Moreover, we have specifically upheld the constitutionality of § 5 of the Act against a challenge that this provision usurps powers reserved to the States. See South Carolina v. Katzenbach, 383 U. S. 301, 334-335 (1966); see also City of Rome v. United States, supra, at 178-183. Nor does Katzenbach require a different result where, as here, § 5 is held to cover acts initiated by noncovered States. The Court in Katzenbach recognized that, once a jurisdiction has been designated, the Act may guard against both discriminatory animus and the potentially harmful effect of neutral laws in that jurisdiction. 383 U. S., at 333-334. In City of Rome, we thus expressly reaffirmed that, “under the Fifteenth Amendment, Congress may prohibit voting practices that have only a discriminatory effect.” 446 U. S., at 175; see also id., at 178-180 (upholding preclearance requirement against federalism challenge).
This is, moreover, precisely what the text of § 5 requires. The United States District Court for the District of Columbia may preclear a proposed voting change only if the court concludes that the change “does not have the purpose and will not have the effect of denying or abridging the right to vote” on the basis of an impermissible classification.
Recognizing that Congress has the constitutional authority to designate covered jurisdictions and to guard against changes that give rise to a discriminatory effect in those jurisdictions, we find no merit in the claim that Congress lacks Fifteenth Amendment authority to require federal approval before the implementation of a state law that may
The State seeks to bolster its constitutional argument by noting that partially covered States, like California, have no statutory ability to seek an exemption from the Act‘s coverage. Section 4(a) permits a covered jurisdiction to seek declaratory relief exempting the jurisdiction from further coverage if it meets certain criteria.
In short, the Voting Rights Act, by its nature, intrudes on state sovereignty. The Fifteenth Amendment permits this
The State also urges that certain of our prior decisions require a covered jurisdiction to exercise some discretion or policy choice in order to trigger § 5‘s preclearance requirements. In particular, the State relies on Young v. Fordice, 520 U. S. 273 (1997), and City of Monroe v. United States, 522 U. S. 34 (1997) (per curiam). The State, however, seeks to place more weight on these cases than they will bear. The State relies foremost upon Young, which involved a § 5 challenge to a covered State‘s efforts to comply with voting changes mandated by the National Voters’ Registration Act. We concluded that changes brought about by efforts at compliance were themselves the result of discretionary decisions by the State, and these changes required § 5 preclearance: “This Court has made clear that minor, as well as major, changes require preclearance. This is true even where, as here, the changes are made in an effort to comply with federal law, so long as those changes reflect policy choices made by state or local officials.” 520 U. S., at 284 (citations omitted). Like the District Court, the State seeks to invoke Young for the proposition that only the “policy choices” of covered jurisdictions are subject to the preclearance requirements. Young, however, involved an effort to comply with an Act of Congress, the very body that enacted the Voting Rights Act. Congress retains the authority to curtail the Act‘s protections with subsequent legislation; alternatively, Congress may be assumed to have accounted for the policies underlying the Act in rendering new law. Accordingly, the requirement that only “policy choices... by state and local officials” would trigger the § 5 requirements in Young served merely to isolate for preclearance those changes that are not wholly creatures of Congress.
The State also seeks to rely on City of Monroe, in which we held that preclearance of a voting change included in a statewide law empowered a municipality to implement that
Finally, we note that this Court has created an exception to the preclearance requirement in certain cases involving federally court-ordered voting changes. As a general rule, voting changes crafted wholly by a federal district court in the first instance do not require preclearance. See Connor v. Johnson, 402 U.S. 690, 691 (1971) (per curiam). Thus, in Connor, the Court rejected a claim that
“Needless to say I completely agree with the holding of the majority that a reapportionment plan formulated and ordered by a federal district court need
not be approved by the United States Attorney General or the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. Under our constitutional system it would be strange indeed to construe §5 ... to require that actions of a federal court be stayed and reviewed by the Attorney General or the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.” Id., at 695.
We have since recognized limitations on the Connor exception. In McDaniel v. Sanchez, 452 U.S. 130 (1981), the District Court had sustained a constitutional challenge to a county apportionment scheme and had ordered the implementation of a new plan that the county had submitted to the court. In holding that the new plan should have been precleared before the District Court took any action on it, we noted that
We hold that the County is obligated to seek preclearance under
It is so ordered.
I would not decide in this case whether ”
I concur in the majority‘s disposition of this case, however, because it is clear that the state enactments requiring the voting changes at issue in fact embodied the policy preferences and determinations of the county itself. See McDaniel v. Sanchez, 452 U.S. 130, 148-151 (1981) (voting changes contained in federal-court order require preclearance if they were proposed by the covered jurisdiction); Young v. Fordice, supra, at 285 (state changes made in an effort to comply with federal law require preclearance if they “reflect the
JUSTICE THOMAS, dissenting.
The majority today interprets the phrase “seek to administer” as used in
I
As the majority notes, ante, at 269, Monterey County (County) is a covered jurisdiction under the Voting Rights Act, but the State of California is not.
The majority concludes that the County must preclear the State‘s laws because it “seek[s] to administer” the state districting scheme. Ante, at 278.2 The Voting Rights Act does not define the phrase “seek to administer,” and the majority‘s construction of the phrase is not plainly erroneous. “[A]dminister” can plausibly be read, in isolation, to encompass “nondiscretionary acts by covered jurisdictions endeavoring to comply with the superior law of the State.” Ante, at 279. But I do not think that the majority‘s reading of the statute is the best one. “[S]eek to administer” must be read in light of its surrounding terms.
The majority‘s interpretation appears to render superfluous the “enact” prong of the statute. A person could not be “denied the right to vote for failure to comply with” a covered jurisdiction‘s enactment affecting voting, as
My interpretation of the statutory phrase also more accurately reflects the section‘s purpose. As we have previously recognized,
“‘a response to a common practice in some jurisdictions of staying one step ahead of the federal courts by passing new discriminatory voting laws as soon as the old ones had been struck down.... Congress therefore decided... “to shift the advantage of time and inertia from the perpetrators of the evil to its victi[m],” ....‘” Beer v. United States, 425 U.S. 130, 140 (1976) (quoting H. R. Rep. No. 94-196, pp. 57-58 (1970)).
See also Reno v. Bossier Parish School Bd., 520 U.S. 471, 477 (1997) (quoting Beer); Miller v. Johnson, 515 U.S. 900, 926 (1995) (same). It follows that Congress intended to subject to federal preclearance only the policy decisions made by jurisdictions that it found to be the “perpetrators of the evil” by means of the
The Government, as amicus curiae supporting appellants, suggests that the State enacted its district consolidation legislation at the County‘s suggestion, implying that the state judicial district consolidation statutes are the product of the County‘s policy choices. Brief for United States as Amicus Curiae 22-25. I recognize that in McDaniel v. Sanchez, 452 U.S. 130 (1981), we required preclearance of a court-ordered voting change in a covered jurisdiction because the plan that the court had ordered was submitted by, and reflected the policy choices of, that covered jurisdiction, even though we had decided, in Connor v. Johnson, 402 U.S. 690 (1971) (per curiam), that federal court-ordered voting changes need not be precleared. 452 U.S., at 147, 153. We stated that “[a]s we construe the congressional mandate, it requires that whenever a covered jurisdiction submits a proposal reflecting the policy choices of the elected representatives of the people the preclearance requirement of the Voting
II
Moreover, my reading of
Despite these serious and undeniable costs, we have twice upheld the preclearance requirement as a constitutional exercise of Congress’
There can be no remedy without a wrong. Essential to our holdings in Katzenbach and City of Rome was our conclusion that Congress was remedying the effects of prior intentional racial discrimination. In both cases, we required Congress to have some evidence that the jurisdiction bur-
The majority “find[s] no merit in the claim that Congress lacks
Moreover, it is plain that the majority‘s reading of
The majority attempts to bolster its argument by suggesting that requiring the County to submit the State‘s laws for preclearance is no more unusual than the Act‘s suspension of literacy tests in covered jurisdictions. It points out that
* * *
I would interpret