LV districts may withstand high court ruling

Rachael Levy

Friday, June 14, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

Clark County's four minority legislative districts -- the only ones in the state -- will hold up under a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that chips away at minorities' political power, officials say.

The court, in two 5-4 decisions, ruled Thursday that race cannot be the primary factor in drawing district boundaries.

Though Nevada's districts were created to give minorities a voice -- black and Hispanic populations hover near 50 percent -- they could withstand a legal challenge, Legislative Counsel Bureau spokesman Brian Davie said.

The reason? Shape.

Assembly Districts 6, 7 and 28, and Senate District 4 are compact rectangles and squares stretched out or pushed in at the edges. The boundary lines also follow neighborhood boundaries and economic makeup.

"I think you can make a good argument here that the primary consideration was communities of interest," Davie said. "But to be honest, the reason those districts were created was we were trying to comply with the Voting Rights Act, to create majority-minority districts wherever possible."

Davie said the high court's decisions appear to overturn parts of the Voting Rights Act. Since 1993, the Supreme Court has attempted to minimize race as a factor in drawing election districts.

Las Vegas Assemblyman Morse Arberry, a Democratic legislator who represents a 55 percent black district, anticipated such a trend. During the last reapportionment session in 1991, he asked lawyers to make certain District 7 would withstand a challenge of race.

"I was already thinking ahead of the curve," Arberry said Thursday. "I didn't want anyone to come challenge me."

The Legislature is scheduled to redraw the election districts in 2001, a year after the census. Because the last gerrymandering session was in 1991, political leaders predict that the issue of race will be dwarfed by population.

Republican Party Chairman John Mason said he does not think the four districts will be challenged because population growth in the areas justifies their existence.

And Clark County Democratic Party Chairman Charlie Waterman said if the minority districts lose their ethnic voices, causing the Democrats to lose the legislative seats, "so be it."

"I don't worry about things. If it changes the makeup of the Legislature, so be it," Waterman said. "We have to work with what we've got."

But Arberry said he will not let that happen without a fight. He vows to "stick around" until the next reapportionment to assure that District 7 remains a black district -- despite any high court's ruling.

The other majority-minority district representatives -- Sen. Joe Neal of District 4 and Assesmblymen Wendell Williams of District 6 and Mark Manendo of District 28 -- were unavailable for comment.