<x-flowed>Rick,

It seems pretty clear that, unless the constitutional challenge proceeds straight to the Supreme Court by way of the court accepting original jurisdiction (which seems unlikely), the case will need to be filed in the DC District Court.  Section 14(b) of the VRA, 42 USC 1973l, specifies that the DC District Court is the only court that has jurisdiction to issue a "restraining order or temporary or permanent injunction against the execution or enforcement of any provision of this Act."

If the challenge is brought in conjunction with a preclearance request, it will be heard by a three-judge court.  That is what occurred in City of Rome v. US, 446 U.S. 156 (1980), and County Council of Sumter County v. US, 555 F. Supp. 694, 707-08 (1983).  If, on the other hand, it is brought as a stand-alone claim, it will be heard by a single district judge (the three-judge court provision is found in Section 5 and only applies to actions brought under that section).  See Briscoe v. Bell, 432 U.S. 404 (1977) (case brought by the State of Texas seeking to enjoin the AG and the Director of the Census from publishing their determination that Texas was to become a covered jurisdiction pursuant to the 1975 amendments to the VRA). Although Katzenbach v. Morgan, 384 U.S. 641 (1966) (challenge to the constitutionality of Section 4(e) of the VRA), was brought before a three-judge DC District Court, the three-judge designation was pursuant to a statute that since has been repealed (28 USC 2282).

Mark Posner
----- Original Message ----- From: "Rick Hasen" <rick.hasen@lls.edu>
To: "election-law" <election-law@majordomo.lls.edu>
Sent: Thursday, July 27, 2006 12:27 AM
Subject: jurisdiction if VRA section 5 constitutionality is challenged

If someone files a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the renewed section 5 (or other provision, such as section 203), would the case be filed before a three-judge court?  Or would it go through a normal district court- court of appeal-cert to Supreme Court process?  Is there anything in the Act that speaks to jurisdiction?  If there is a choice of where to file, any thinking on where and when such a challenge would be filed?

-- 
Rick Hasen
William H. Hannon Distinguished Professor of Law
Loyola Law School
919 South Albany Street
Los Angeles, CA  90015-0019
(213)736-1466 - voice
(213)380-3769 - fax
rick.hasen@lls.edu
http://www.lls.edu/academics/faculty/hasen.html
http://electionlawblog.org

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