Northwest Austin Municipal Utility District Number One v. Eric H. Holder, JR., Attorney General, et al. (557 U.S. 193)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided June 22, 2009 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 557 U.S. 193 · 129 S. Ct. 2504
- Decided
- June 22, 2009
- Term
- October Term 2008
- Vote
- 8–1
- Majority author
- Justice Roberts
- Issue area
- Civil Rights
- Disposition
- Reversed and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
Opinion excerpt
Chief Justice Roberts delivered the opinion of the Court. The plaintiff in this case is a small utility district raising a big question — the constitutionality of §5 of the Voting Rights Act. The district has an elected board, and is required by §5 to seek preclearance from federal authorities in Washington, D. C., before it can change anything about those elections. This is required even though there has never been any evidence of racial discrimination in voting in the district. The district filed suit seeking relief from these preclearance obligations under the “bailout” provision of the Voting Rights Act. That provision allows the release of a “political subdivision” from the preclearance requirements if certain rigorous conditions are met. The court below denied relief, concluding that bailout was unavailable to a political subdivision like the utility district that did not register its own voters. The district appealed, arguing that the Act imposes no such limitation on bailout, and that if it does, the preclearance requirements are unconstitutional. That constitutional question has attracted ardent briefs from dozens of interested parties, but the importance of the question does not justify our rushing to decide it. Quite the contrary: Our usual practice is to avoid the unnecessary resolution of constitutional questions. We agree that the district is eligible under the…
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