BOSTON - - The 1st Circuit Court of Appeals today vacated a decision to
dismiss a lawsuit that claimed Rhode Island's legislative redistricting
process was unfair to black voters.
The case was sent back to U.S. District Court in Providence, R.I., for
further proceedings.
"The reason for our remand is to allow a fuller development of the
evidence, and further legal analysis based on that evidence, before any
final determination is made," the appeals court justices wrote. Two of
the justices disagreed with the majority opinion.
The lawsuit was filed in May 2002 on behalf of former Rhode Island Rep.
Harold Metts, the Providence branch of the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People, and other plaintiffs. A federal judge
dismissed the lawsuit later that year.
The suit claims Rhode Island's plan to redraw state boundaries made it
harder for voters in the newly-mapped District 2 to elect a black
candidate in South Providence. The Senate map created a district that
pitted Rhode Island's first and only black senator, Charles Walton,
against Juan Pichardo, who was elected the state's first and only
Hispanic senator.
Rhode Island's legislative districts were redrawn in 2002 using updated
census figures. The process coincided with a voter-mandated downsizing
of the General Assembly.
The district is 21 percent black under the new redistricting plan, and
was 26 percent black before the map was redrawn. The district is now 47
percent Hispanic under the new plan, up from 41 percent.
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