Court Briefs

Chicago wards: Do whites have more than their share?

A city ward map approved by Chicago voters could be affected by the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that makes it harder to take voters' race into account when drawing election districts. The city map, approved in a 1992 referendum, sits in federal court, where it has been challenged on grounds that it gives whites more than their fair share of council seats.

In Barnett v. Daley, a 1992 lawsuit filed against the city and the Chicago Board of Elections Commissioners, plaintiffs charge that defendants "designed a ward map that intentionally dilutes, cancels out and minimizes African-American voting strength. Also, they designed the map to maximize white voting strength." Bonilla v. Daley, another 1992 suit, since incorporated into Barnett v. Daley, asked for at least eight Latino wards.

U.S. District Judge Brian Barnett Duff ruled in the city's favor. But last year, U.S. Appeals Judge Richard A. Posner reversed that decision, ruling that even though blacks may be represented proportionately in the city council, the current ward map could be illegal because whites may be overrepresented. In sending the case back to Duff, Posner said plaintiffs must prove that whites are getting more than their fair share. The case is expected to go to trial early next year.

Defendants could cite this summer's U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Miller v. Johnson. That ruling, which struck down a Georgia congressional redistricting plan, held that districts cannot be drawn using race as the "predominant factor." However, Judson H. Miner, chief attorney for the plaintiffs in the Chicago case, believes the high court's ruling will have no bearing: "Ours is a dilution case. We're saying that lines were drawn with the intent and effect of diluting the black vote while maximizing the white vote." Plaintiffs maintain that "there is no legitimate, non-racial reason for adoption of a plan which denies African Americans an equal opportunity to participate in the political process."

Chicago voters were asked to choose between the "Equity Map," backed by Richard M. Daley's administration, and the "Pair Map," supported by independent white and black aldermen. The Equity Map, which was approved by voters, created 23 white wards, 19 black wards, seven Latino wards and one mixed ward. The Fair Map would have created 22 black, 21 white and seven Latino wards. According to a precinct analysis by The Chicago Reporter, 82 percent of the city's blacks voted for the Fair Map, while the administration map was favored by nearly 92 percent of whites and 82 percent of Latinos.

For the first time minorities constitute a majority of Chicago's 50 city council members, with 19 African-American, seven Latino and 24 white aldermen. According to the 1990 Census, the city's total population was 38.6 percent African American, 37.9 percent white and 19.6 percent Latino. Representation on the city council is 38 percent African American, 48 percent white and 14 percent Latino.

Racial and ethnic communities in Chicago are highly segregated, according to the census report. African Americans are concentrated on the city's South and West sides. Latinos on the near Southwest and near Northwest sides and whites on the North and Southwest sides.

"Whenever possible, the current map preserved intact white communities in order to preserve white incumbent aldermen and/or to maximize the number of wards in which whites could elect their preferred representatives," plaintiffs argue in their compaint. "On the other hand, the current map does not preserve African-American communities intact."

The plaintiffs further allege: "At the time the current map was drawn, defendants were aware that, based on the 1990 Census, the African-American population was sufficiently numerous and geographically compact to create as many as 22 wards that could comply with traditional redistricting standards in which African Americans would have the opportunity to elect the candidate of their choice."

In a statement to The Chicago Reporter, the Daley administration defended the current map, saying it increased the number of Latino wards without cutting black representation. "The mayor has tried hard to move Chicago beyond the politics of race....He will continue to do so in the future." The statement said that "there is little likelihood" the ward map will be invalidated by the courts.

Debi Edmund

September 1995/Illinois Issues/35