United States Fourth Circuit

In plaintiffs' action challenging a district's method of electing school board members claiming that the election process dilutes the voting strength of African-American voters, an order holding that the school board election system violates Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 is vacated and remanded where: 1) the district court erred by considering only the elections that took place between 1984 and 2004; and 2) district court's application of the second and third Gingles factors was based on factual and legal errors.

Appellate Information

• Decided 12/21/2009
• Published 12/21/2009

Judges

• Before KING and DUNCAN, Circuit Judges, and IRENE M. KEELEY, United States District Judge for the Northern District of West Virginia, sitting by designation.

Court

• United States Fourth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellees:
  
• ARGUED:  Allan Lee Parks, Jr., Parks, Chesin & Wal-Bert, PC, Atlanta, Georgia, for Appellant.  Laughlin McDonald, American Civil Liberties Union Foundation, Atlanta, Georgia, for Appellees.   ON BRIEF:  David T. Duff, Duff, White & Turner, LLC, Columbia, South Carolina;  Kevin V. Parsons, Smith, Parsons & Vickstrom, PLLC, Charlotte, North Carolina, for Appellant.  Meredith Bell-Platts, American Civil Liberties Union Foundation, Atlanta, Georgia;  Herbert E. Buhl, III, Law Offices Of Herbert E. Buhl, III, Columbia, South Carolina, for Appellees.