McCord v. City of Fort Lauderdale’s Empirical Analysis
787 F.2d 1528 · 1986
Citation profile
6 federal appellate · 1 district ·
Relationships
Applies 42 U.S.C. § 1973 (§ 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965)
Relies on Pullman-Standard v. Swint · Allen v. State Board of Elections · Commodity Futures Trading Commission v. Weintraub · White v. Regester · United States v. District Court
Most-quoted passages
The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 11 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“less opportunity than other members of the electorate to participate in the political process and to elect representatives of their choice.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“Care must be taken in the factual development of the existence of polarized voting because whether polarized voting is present can pivot the legality of at-large voting districts. The inquiry is whether race or ethnicity was such a determinant of voting preference in the rejection of [minority] candidates by a white majority that the at-large district, with its components, denied minority voters effective voting opportunity. In answering the inquiry, there is a risk that a seemingly polarized voting pattern in fact is only the presence of mathematical correspondence of race to loss inevitable in such defeats of minority candidates. The point is that there will almost always be a raw correlation with race in any failing candidacy of a minority whose racial or ethnic group is as small a percentage of the total voting population as here. Yet, raw correspondence, even at high levels, must accommodate the legal principle that the amended Voting Rights Act does not legislate proportional representation. More complex regression study or multivariate mathematical inquiry will often be essential to gauge the explanatory power of the variables necessarily present in a political race. Nor will math models always furnish an answer. A healthy dose of common sense and intuitive assessment remain powerful components to this critical factual inquiry. For example, a token candidacy of a minority unknown outside his minority voting area may attract little non-minority support and produce a hig”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“When analyzing racial polarization in voting it is important to realize that no one statistical theory is appropriate in all vote dilution cases. Care must be taken to examine each case individually while keeping in mind the section 2 “totality of the circumstances” approach. Statistics can be very useful analytically but they also can be quite deceiving if applied narrowly and automatically without the proper scope.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.