THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, September 11, 1996 TAG: 9609110469
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY WARREN FISKE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 90 lines
A court case that could change how Hampton Roads elects its representatives to Congress opens in Roanoke today before a panel of three federal judges.
At issue is whether the first and only majority black congressional district in Virginia was legally designed.
The 3rd Congressional District - with a 62 percent black voting age population - meanders 225 miles through portions of Norfolk, Portsmouth and Suffolk all the way northeast to Essex County, with tentacles stretching into parts of Richmond and Petersburg.
Since its inception in 1992, it has been represented by Democrat Robert C. Scott, the first African American to be elected this century to represent Virginia in Congress. Even if the court tells the state to redraw the district, Scott,a Harvard-educated lawyer with broad biracial appeal, is expected to hold his seat.
What's at stake is a broad principle about representative government. The court will decide if the General Assembly designed the district in 1991 to assure the election of a black congressman. The U.S. Supreme Court, in a series of landmark rulings over the past 15 months that have redefined key election laws, has said that race cannot be ``the predominant factor'' in apportioning districts. Experts say Virginia may have a hard time proving otherwise.
The Supreme Court is saying legislatures should pay more attention to fostering geographical compactness and avoiding dividing localities when drawing the districts.
The suit was filed by two 3rd District Republicans - Donald M. Moon, a retired Navy man and Robert Smith, an African-American taxi driver and unsuccessful candidate for local office. Their lawyer, Stephen A. Katsurinis, said he may try to stop the Nov. 5 congressional election.
``It's not a Democrat-Republican thing, it's a matter of right and wrong,'' said Moon, who has been long involved in civil rights issues affecting Native Americans. ``We're segregating people for elections and that goes against every principle of civil rights.''
Moon and Smith are receiving assistance from the Campaign for a Color Blind America, a Houston-based organization that has raised money for suits in at least six states.
``The third district is a clear racial gerrymander,'' said Katsurinis. He noted that the district was drawn to include 61 percent of the blacks in Norfolk, 64 percent in Portsmouth, 76 percent in Hampton, 85 percent in Newport News, 73 percent in Henrico County, 74 percent in Petersburg and 95 percent in Richmond.
In contrast, a vast majority of whites in each locality - including 87 percent in Norfolk and Portsmouth - were placed in other congressional districts. Eleven of the 17 cities and counties comprising the 3rd district were apportioned by racial populations.
``If race wasn't the predominant factor, how else can you explain those numbers?'' Katsurinis asked.
Deputy Attorney General Francis S. Ferguson acknowledges that the legislature was addressing ``a compelling state interest'' in creating a majority black district. He said the U.S. Justice Department - until recently corrected by the Supreme Court - had long interpreted federal law as demanding that minority districts be created whenever possible.
Even so, Ferguson will argue that race was not the predominant factor in drawing the districts. ``It was one of many factors at the time,'' he said.
At least as important to the legislature, Ferguson said, was protecting several incumbent congressmen with safe districts. Rep. Herbert H. Bateman, a Newport News Republican, resisted initial efforts to place his home in the black district, which was expected to vote overwhelmingly Democratic. In the end, he was strengthened with a district that became increasingly white, suburban and Republican-leaning.
Ferguson said the legislature could have concentrated more blacks into the third district but did not in an effort to help two Democratic incumbents: Norman Sisisky of Petersburg and L.F. Payne of Nelson County.
Ferguson also will argue that in splitting localities, the state was able to furnish two - instead of one - congressional representatives for Norfolk Naval Base and Newport News Shipyard.
The two-day hearing will be marked by the testimony of an assortment of academics and statisticians. Scott and then-Gov. L. Douglas Wilder have refused to testify, claiming executive privilege. The same right has been extended to members of the General Assembly.
Several experts watching the case say privately that the state may have a hard time prevailing, given the consistency of recent high court decisions restricting the rules for creating minority districts.
The three-judge panel has not set a timetable for ruling, but is expected to render an opinion before the Nov. 5 congressional elections.
The NAACP and other civil rights groups has argued that the rulings endanger success minorities have had in winning congressional district seats over the past 14 years. ILLUSTRATION: Map
VP
3RD CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT
KEYWORDS: GERRYMANDERING by CNB