
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, July 24, 1990                   TAG: 9007240502
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B/3   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Short

COURT OVERTURNS VOTING BIAS RULING

Blacks in Brunswick County waited too long to file a lawsuit that called the county's voting districts racially discriminatory, a federal appeals court said today in reversing a lower court ruling.

In overturning a decision by U.S. District Judge James Spencer, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals also said it would make no sense to change the county's voting districts just before 1990 census figures become available.

The ruling marks the first time that the American Civil Liberties Union in Virginia has lost a challenge to local voting districts as racially discriminatory. The ACLU has filed lawsuits against about 18 Virginia localities and all other cases except one were settled or resolved by a district court judge, said Kent Willis, Virginia director of the ACLU. An Henrico County case is pending before the 4th Circuit, he said.

by CNB