Court Considers Voting Rights Issue

Monday, November 27th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

WASHINGTON (AP) â€” Just in time for the drawing of new election districts with 2000 census numbers, a pivotal voting-rights dispute is giving the Supreme Court a chance to clarify when voting districts have been unlawfully based on race.

The North Carolina case being argued Monday is a followup to the justices' landmark 1993 ruling that election districts drawn to help minorities might violate white voters' rights.

A lower court ruled that the state's 12th Congressional District â€” 46 percent of whose registered voters are black â€” was unlawful because race was the ``predominant factor'' in its creation. But North Carolina says the district should be upheld because it was based mainly on politics, not race.

The Clinton administration, supporting North Carolina, told the justices in court papers that the case was ``likely to be its final opportunity'' to outline new standards before new election districts are created with 2000 census figures.

The justices are expected to issue a decision by July that could have a major effect on the racial makeup of voting districts nationwide.

North Carolina's lawyers say the 12th district was drawn mainly for political reasons and that race was only one of many factors considered.

``The consideration of race, however, is not impermissible, and certainly is not synonymous with the predominant use of race,'' the state's lawyers said in court papers.

Lawyers for the residents who challenged the district said it was created ``with the purpose to assure a racially determined result in the primary ... It is specifically designed to ensure that only a candidate of one preordained race will be elected.''

The 12th district is represented by Democrat Mel Watt, one of two blacks elected to Congress in 1992 from a state that had not sent a black to Washington since 1901. It includes the cities of Charlotte, Winston-Salem and Greensboro.

Disputes over the district have led to three previous Supreme Court rulings, including the 1993 decision that let white voters challenge districts designed to help minorities.

In 1996, the Supreme Court declared that an earlier version of the district, which had a 57 percent majority of blacks among registered voters, was unlawfully based on race.

State lawmakers redrew the district in 1997, creating a new one in which blacks made up 46 percent of registered voters. A federal court ruled it unconstitutional, but the Supreme Court last year ordered the court to take a closer look.

In March, the lower court again threw out the 12th district, calling it an ``impermissible and unconstitutional racial gerrymander.''

In appealing to the Supreme Court, North Carolina contended that its main goal was to create a safe Democratic district to maintain the 6-6 split between Republicans and Democrats in the state's congressional delegation. The black precincts added to the 12th district were more likely than nearby white precincts to vote for Democratic candidates, the state's lawyers said in court papers.

The residents who challenged the district contended that ``race was the only explanation'' for the way the district was drawn.

The cases are Hunt v. Cromartie, 99-1864, and Smallwood v. Cromartie, 99-1865.

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On the Net: Supreme Court site: http://www.supremecourtus.gov