#LA Judge hears arguments in lawsuit over 2012 redistricting LOS ANGELES — Attorneys presented arguments Tuesday in U.S. District Court in downtown in two lawsuits challenging the city of Los Angeles’ June 2012 ordinance which redrew City Council district boundaries. The lawsuits on behalf of residents of Koreatown and Council Districts 8, 9, and 10 allege that the new boundaries for Council District 10 were drawn based on race in violation of the U.S. Constitution, state law and portions of the Los Angeles City Charter. Plaintiffs say the city ignored traditional redistricting principles to keep neighborhoods and communities whole. In the redistricting process, part of the 8th Council District’s large African-American population was moved to the 10th District and Koreatown was split between the 10th and the 13th council districts. The plaintiffs claim the city redrew the boundaries of the 9th District to increase the Latino voting age population. Attorneys for the city asked Judge Consuelo B. Marshall to reject the federal and state claims made in the two cases, in part “because neither … plaintiffs can demonstrate that race predominated in drafting” either [Council District 9 and 10] and because the boundaries of those districts are explainable by traditional, race-neutral redistricting criteria. “Every change to [the 10th Council District] is explained by a race-neutral redistricting criterion, which was to heal or reduce neighborhood splits on [the district’s] borders, thereby substantially improving the plan as a whole,” the attorneys wrote. The plaintiffs’ attorneys asked the judge to declare the redistricting ordinance unconstitutional and illegal; to appoint a special master to supervise the drawing of new district boundaries; and to order the city to hold a referendum on the proposed redistricting ordinance. The plaintiff’s presented evidence pointing to a Redistricting Commission member who “acknowledged … that his goal in redrawing the boundaries of Council District 10 was to protect the historical African-American incumbents in [the district] by increasing the black voter registration percentage and the citizen voting age population accordingly.” “In particular … the city redrew Council District 10 for the explicit purpose of increasing the percentage of registered African-American voters in [the district],” court papers said. The Koreatown plaintiff’s attorney Hyongsoon Kim said, Christopher Ellison, who was appointed to the commission by City Council President Herb Wesson, made no bones about it that he acted on racial grounds.” During court recess on Tuesday, Robin B. Johansen, one of the city’s attorneys, declined to comment on the proceedings as “the case was still in court.” Grace Yoo, executive director of the Korean American Coalition said, “I don’t see how the summary judgment could be accepted with the smoking gun email from Ellison putting it straight out there that they drew the lines for racial purposes.” The court had previously ruled, however, that remarks made by Wesson in a speech after the redistricting process was over, were inadmissible as evidence. Wesson had spoken to a conference of African-American ministers about protecting “the most important asset that we as black people have, and that’s to make sure that a minimum of two of the council people will be black for the next 30 years.” The court held that such evidence has privileged and “not appropriate … for proving legislative intent.” During the Redistricting Commission hearings on the proposed maps, residents of South Los Angeles and Koreatown had asked to be left in their current districts and to not be split between districts. The large predominantly African-American communities of Leimert Park and Baldwin Hills were removed from City Councilman Bernard Parks’ 8th District and moved to Wesson’s 10th District. Portions of the Palms neighborhood in which African-Americans are in the minority were removed from the 10th District to the 11th District. Much of downtown Los Angeles was moved from the 9th District, then represented by Jan Perry to Jose Huizar’s 14th District. Koreatown was divided between Council District 10 and Council District 13, then represented by Councilman Eric Garcetti. Koreatown plaintiffs say that the community contributes significant taxes, but because of the splits between multiple districts, they lack political clout and don’t get their fair share of funding. The city challenged the plaintiff’s claim that the new 10th District is irregular in shape, contending that the redistricting helped to unify neighborhood councils and reduce the number of splits in them. “The … theory on which the plaintiffs rely only applies to artificially created majority-minority districts and [the 10th District] is not an African-American majority district by any standard,” the city’s lawyers wrote in court papers. The city’s attorneys referenced the “compactness of 10th District, its retention of 85 percent of the residents from the former district, the relatively small population increases, and the increase in the African-American voting age population [calling it] a key measure of a racial group’s strength. The black voting age population increased only 3.7 percent from 36.8 percent to 40.5 percent.” The judge issued no ruling after Tuesday’s arguments, but said she expected to issue a ruling soon. If the judge rejects a summary judgment in the case, trial could begin next month. Whatever decision the judge hand down, the loser is expected to appeal. wavenewspapers/news/article_5d624a62-39fb-11e4-ad2a-0017a43b2370.html
Posted on: Wed, 15 Oct 2014 16:37:41 +0000
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