Memories have understandably faded, but the congressional districting in
Chicago in the 1990s was actually a strong example of cooperation between
African Americans and Hispanics, and in fact the court opinion praised the
parties for this.  All the parties to the case agreed that the VRA required
the creation of a new Hispanic majority district and even reached agreement
on how it should be configured.  As a result, the primary dispute at trial
was between the Republican and Democratic groups (the "Hastert" and
"Rosewood" plaintiffs), on how other districts should be configured.  There
was a smaller side dispute between two different groups of African American
plaintiffs about whether a particular ward should be in the 1st or 7th
congressional district (both those districts were majority African
American).  The case was Hastert v State Board of Elections.

Disclosure:  at the time I was with the Lawyers' Committee, which played a
role in the case.

Steve Mulroy wrote:

Another example is the VRA litigation  in the mid to late 90s concerning
congressional redistricting in Chicago. (I can't recall the case name
offhand).  That also concerned competition between Hispanics and
African-Americans.  SJM

Daniel Schuman wrote:

Mr. Mayer,

See Johnson v. De Grandy (1994).  There was redistricting in State
House and Senate in Florida, pitting two minorities (Cubans and
Blacks) against one another.

Held: there is no discrimination claim b/c even though they met the
Gingles test, proportional representation is good enough. Maximization
of minority districts is not required. Souter: VRA protects against
political famine, not feast. Section 2 is about equality of opportunity.

I think this is what you are looking for. Let me know,

Daniel Schuman
===============
Emory University School of Law
Class of 2006
404/312-8255


Kenneth R. Mayer wrote:

Can anyone provide information about how often different minority
groups are at odds with each other over VRA issues?  Are there
examples of litigation in which, for example, Hispanic and African
American voters in a jurisdiction have both challenged a
redistricting plan or other voting practice, alleging vote dilution,
and sought changes which would affect the other groupÕs claims? How
do judges balance these competing claims?







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Kenneth R. Mayer

Professor, Department of Political Science

1050 Bascom Mall

University of Wisconsin-Madison

Madison, WI  53706

(608) 263-2286/ fax (608) 265-2663

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