Consider [a] town of 600 whites and 400 blacks with an at-large election to choose four council members. Each voter is able to cast four votes. Suppose there are eight white candidates, with the votes of the whites split among them approximately equally, and one black candidate, with all the blacks voting for him and no one else. The result is that each white candidate receives about 300 votes and the black candidate receives 400 votes. The black has probably won a seat. This technique is called single-shot voting.
“[W]e have got a situation in Alabama that we are becoming more painfully aware of every passing day, that we have a concerted desire and a campaign to register Negroes en masse, regardless of the fact that many of them ordinarily cannot qualify because of their criminal records, or criminal attitudes, because of the fact that they are illiterate and cannot understand or pass literacy tests.... [I]t has occurred to a great many people, including the legislature of Alabama, that to protect the white people of Alabama, that there should be numbered place laws.”
All persons ... may be joined in one action as defendants if there is asserted against them jointly, severally, or in the alternative, any right to relief in respect of or arising out of the same transaction, occurrence, or series of transactions or occurrences and if any question of law or fact common to all defendants will arise in the action.
the extent of any history of official discrimination in the state or political subdivision that touched the right of the members of the minority group to register, to vote, or otherwise to participate in the democratic process; ... the extent to which the state or political subdivision has used ... majority vote requirements, anti-single shot provisions, or other voting practices or procedures that may enhance the opportunity for discrimination against the minority group; ... [and] whether the policy underlying the state or political subdivision's use of such voting qualification, prerequisite to voting, or standard, practice or procedure is tenuous.
the broadest interpretation of the language of § 1391(b) that is even arguably acceptable is that in the unusual case in which it is not clear that the claim arose in only one specific district, a plaintiff may choose between those two (or conceivably even more) districts that with approximately equal plausibility—in terms of the availability of witnesses, the accessibility of other relevant evidence, and the convenience of the defendant (but not of the plaintiff)—may be assigned as the locus of the claim.
the traditional approach has been to consider (1) whether the interest of the named party is coextensive with the interests of the other members of the class; (2) whether his interests are antagonistic in any way to the interests of those whom he represents; (3) the proportion of those made parties as compared with the total membership of the class; (4) any other facts bearing on the ability of the named party to speak for the rest of the class.
Total | Black | Percent Black | |
---|---|---|---|
County | Population | Population | Population |
Calhoun | 119,761 | 21,074 | 17.60% |
Coffee | 38,533 | 6,532 | 16.95% |
Etowah | 103,057 | 13,809 | 13.40% |
Lawrence | 30,170 | 5,074 | 16.82% |
Pickens | 21,481 | 8,978 | 41.80% |
Talladega | 73,826 | 22,745 | 30.81% |
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