THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, August 3, 1994 TAG: 9408030427
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY MASON PETERS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 89 lines
Another U.S. Supreme Court test of North Carolina's two black-majority congressional districts appears certain after a ruling by a federal court in Raleigh that upheld the legality of the voting areas created by the General Assembly.
Almost unnoticed when the U.S. tribunal unexpectedly released the 203-page decision against a group of white Durham voters Monday night was a separate one-sentence order in which the judges said they ``reserve the right to revise their opinions by 21 August 1994.''
Sometime before then, attorneys said, the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to act on a Louisiana case involving a 600-mile long, minority congressional district in that state.
In Raleigh, there was speculation that the high court ruling in the Louisiana case could cause rethinking by the Raleigh judges.
This much seemed certain:
The group of white Durham voters seeking to overturn the General Assembly reapportionment that created the narrow 12th Congressional District from Durham to Charlotte will appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court after Monday's ruling. The 1st District between the Virginia state line and Wilmington via Elizabeth City was similarly mapped as a black-majority district.
A special deputy N.C. attorney general said the federal court actions would not affect the congressional elections in November in either the 12th or the 1st Districts. ``Nothing like that will happen this year - there isn't time,'' said Charles M. Hensey, the deputy attorney general.
In the Raleigh decision this week, two of the three U.S. District Court judges, sitting as a tribunal, agreed there was ``a racial gerrymander'' in the 12th and in the 1st Congressional Districts as drawn by the General Assembly.
But the majority decision, written by Judge J. Dickson Phillips Jr., said that the redistricting ``passes constitutional muster'' because the legislators had to comply with the U.S. Voting Rights Act.
The Durham voters who thus lost for a second time were quick to decide on an appeal.
``We have to go on to the Supreme Court - we've gone this far,'' said Dorothy Bullock, one of the five Durham whites who brought the first redistricting suit against North Carolina in 1992. When a federal court first ruled against them in that suit, the Durham group appealed to the Supreme Court, which ordered the Raleigh tribunal to reconsider the dispute.
Monday's ruling in Raleigh was the outcome of that reconsideration.
The historic Durham test case was developed by Robinson O. Everett, a Duke University law professor and former judge. Everett, Bullock, and three other white Durham voters charged the N.C. attorney general with violating their constitutional rights because, Everett said, the new 12th Congressional District was gerrymandered to favor African-Americans. Bullock is Everett's confidential law aide and spokesperson.
``He (Everett) is out of town with the phones turned off,'' said Bullock on Tuesday. ``I expect there will be a statement soon about our appeal,'' she added.
In Monroe, La., Paul Hurd represented the Louisiana voters whose case is expected to be acted on by the Supreme Court this month.
Hurd led the legal fight that overturned Louisiana's ``Zorro'' congressional voting district - so named because it stretched in a huge ``Z'' from northwest Louisiana almost to the Gulf of Mexico.
``The courts have upheld us twice,'' Hurd said, ``But Louisiana has now gone to the Supreme Court to try to overturn the decisions and support the legislature.''
The order in which the three Raleigh judges served notice that they might change their minds between now and Aug. 21 was hard for him to understand, Hurd said.
``I can't imagine why they did that,'' he said, ``They've considered their Monday decision for months and now it appears they aren't sure.''
Two black U.S. representatives were elected to Congress in the contested 12th and 1st Congressional Districts.
Rep. Eva M. Clayton, D-Warrenton, won in the 1st District, which covers all or parts of 28 counties from Lake Gaston on the Virginia-North Carolina line almost to the South Carolina border. In this district black registered voters outnumber whites 55 to 45 percent.
Rep. Mel Watt, a Charlotte lawyer, won the 1992 election from the 12th District, where registered black voters outnumber whites 53 to 45 percent. The district follows a narrow path between Durham and Charlotte.
In Washington, Clayton said she hoped Monday's decision favoring ``majority-minority'' voting districts would influence other redistricting outside North Carolina.
Watt, also seeking reelection, said he would have been happier with a unanimous decision by the Raleigh tribunal. Two of the judges supported the redistricting, while Judge Richard Voorhees dissented. by CNB