Supreme Court bans racial gerrymandering

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Supreme Court ends racial gerrymandering

CIR's victory in Reno v. Bossier Parish School District made the Department of Justice stop requiring local goverments to redraw voting districts along racial lines

In 1993, the Bossier Parish school board submitted a race-neutral plan to redraw voting districts as required by the 1990 census. This plan was identical to one earlier approved by the Department of Justice. However, the NAACP proposed an alternative plan which would have created two black majority districts. The school board declined to implement the NAACP proposal since it would have involved splitting 46 existing precincts and violated Louisiana state law. Based on this refusal, the Justice Department denied pre-clearance of the school board plan. A three judge district court heard Bossier's appeal, and determined that its voting plan did not have a discriminatory purpose or retrogressive result, and that Bossier was thus entitled to pre-clearance for its race neutral plan under the Voting Rights Act.

But the DOJ persisted in opposing the plan, drawing out the matter over 7 years and two trips to the U.S. Supreme Court. Finally on Jan. 24, 2000, Justice Scalia declared that the DOJ may no longer use the pre-clearance provision of the Voting Rights Act to force local jurisdictions to artificially maximize the number of minority districts.

Read the CIR press release (Jan. 24, 2000)

CIR fact sheet on Reno v. Bossier Parish

Second Supreme Court Decision (PDF, January 24, 2000)

Second District Court Decision (PDF, May 1, 1998)

First Supreme Court Decision (PDF, May 12, 1997)

First District Court Decision (PDF, November 2, 1995)

Last revised: 23-Jul-2013