Document Type

Article

Publication Title

North Carolina Law Review

Abstract

As the redistricting of the 2000s commences, voting-rights law is at a critical juncture. Changes in constitutional law during the 1990s, as well as shifts in voting behavior during that decade, raise novel and profound challenges to how the Voting Rights Act and the Constitution will be applied to the mix of race and politics in the current redistricting. In the 1990s, voting-rights law required the creation of "safe" majority-minority districts in which minority voters constituted an electoral majority. Social science evidence on the eve of the 2000 redistricting suggests instead that today, in many places, "coalitional" districts, in which minority voters constitute a third of voters or more, but not a majority, are now sufficient to ensure minority communities an equal opportunity to elect candidates of their choice. This has come about because white voters now appear willing, in many places, to vote for black candidates at higher levels than a decade ago. For constitutional purposes, there are now questions about whether the safe districts of the 1990s can survive strict scrutiny in the 2000s, if coalitional districts are sufficient to ensure equal electoral opportunity. For Voting Rights Act purposes, there are now questions about whether the Act either requires or permits such coalitional districts. This Article first explores the critical legal issues that will emerge in the 2000 redistricting process, in light of changes in the law and in voting behavior in the 1990s. The Article then questions whether the policies of the Voting Rights Act, which might be thought to favor coalitional districts where they are sufficient to ensure equal electoral opportunity, will nonetheless be in tension with judicial administration of the Act, which might continue to require safe minority election districts.

First Page

1517

Volume

80

Publication Date

2002

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