Case Summary

When Virginia’s General Assembly redrew its legislative districts in 2011, it intentionally drew twelve districts to have a black-voting-age-population (“BVAP”) of at least 55%. On December 22, 2014, a group of Virginia voters filed a federal lawsuit challenging those districts as unconstitutional racial gerrymanders under the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause. In defense of these districts, the State argued they were necessary in order to comply with the federal Voting Rights Act (“VRA”).

  • The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia held a bench trial from July 7 to July 13, 2015.
  • On October 22, 2015, the district court upheld the twelve challenged districts on the grounds plaintiffs failed to show that race predominated when creating eleven of them and, as for the twelfth, the State’s use of race was narrowly tailored to achieve compliance with the VRA. Plaintiffs filed their notice of appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court four days later.
  • On March 1, 2017, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed the district court’s decision and remanded the case, citing errors in the lower court’s analysis and application of racial gerrymandering precedents. First, the Court explained racial gerrymandering plaintiffs can show racial predominance through either circumstantial evidence of a district’s shape and demographics or through direct evidence of legislative purpose, and such a showing could still be made when a plan otherwise “respects” traditional redistricting criteria and principles. Second, the Court stated that racial gerrymandering claims must always be analyzed on a “district-by-district” basis and courts’ analyses should never separate out any portion of a district’s lines from the rest of it.

Significance: (1) Plaintiffs can still prevail on a racial gerrymandering claim despite the challenged map adhering to traditional redistricting principles; (2) when analyzing a racial gerrymandering claim, courts must look at the allegedly offending district(s) holistically to determine whether race predominated when drawing it as a whole, rather than when drawing individual lines within the district itself.

Case Library

U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, Richmond Division - 3:14-cv-00852

U.S. Supreme Court - No. 15-680 [Bethune-Hill v. Va. State Bd. of Elections, 137 S.Ct. 788 (2017)]