Divided High Court Upholds Board's Redistricting Plan

By Mark Walsh

Washington

The federal government may not withhold approval of voting changes for state and local elections, even for those adopted with a discriminatory purpose, unless the changes would leave minorities in a worse electoral position than before, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled last week.

The 5-4 ruling involved a redistricting plan adopted by the Bossier Parish, La., school board in 1992. At the time, no African-American had ever been elected to the 12-member board, even though blacks composed 20 percent of the parish's population. The Department of Justice had directed the board to revise its plan by creating two majority-black electoral districts, but it refused.

In its Jan. 24 ruling in Reno v. Bossier Parish School Board (Case No. 98-405), the Supreme Court used the case to interpret an important section of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Under Section 5 of the statute, states and local jurisdictions throughout the South and in some other areas of the country with a history of racial discrimination in voting must submit any change in voting plans or procedures to the...