Tuesday, August 10, 1999
Case for at-large judges pushed
U.S. Supreme Court asked to intervene
BY BEN L. KAUFMAN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
The U.S. Supreme Court has been asked to consider a challenge to at-large elections for Hamilton County judges.
Former State Rep. William Mallory Sr. says white countywide majorities swamp black voters' choices and violate the Voting Rights Act.
He and 11 other black voters sued in 1995, challenging Hamilton County and other urban county judicial elections where at-large ballots are used.
Defendants — Ohio, the governor and secretary of state — won the first two encounters.
Monday, Mr. Mallory confirmed that the U.S. Supreme Court has been asked to reverse those decisions.
Ohio will ask the justices to reject their petition, attorney N. Victor Goodman responded. “This is not a case that should be taken in.”
A last resort
In 1997, U.S. District Judge George C. Smith in Columbus said black voters failed to prove their case in Hamilton and other urban counties. Four months ago, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit in Cincinnati affirmed that verdict.
Even if white bloc voting violated African-Americans' rights, the courts said, federal judges were powerless “to impose a remedy because all potential remedies would impermissibly alter the structure of Ohio's judicial system.”
Last week, attorney Richard A. Cordray mailed the black voters' petition to the Supreme Court. A decision on whether it will hear the appeal might come before the court resumes in October.
“If the Supremes don't reverse it, I'm knocked out of the box,” Mr. Mallory said. “It can't be resolved by the legislative process.”
Mr. Mallory's suit and petition address the paucity of black judges in the Ohio 1st District Court of Appeals in Hamilton County (no African-Americans; six whites) and Hamilton County Common Pleas Court (one African-American; 21 whites).
The suit says African-Americans lose even when black voters overwhelmingly support a black candidate.
Previous case settled
This suit reprises one filed by Mr. Mallory and other black voters who challenged at-large elections for Hamilton County Municipal Court.
That complaint never went to trial. A settlement ended countywide elections, and voters now elect two judges in each of seven districts, including two where black voters are assumed to prevail.
In previous arguments, Mr. Goodman, lead attorney for Ohio, said the absence of black judges does not prove that countywide ballots deny African-Americans an equal opportunity to elect their choices.
Rather, he said, race is one of the least significant factors in judicial elections, and party affiliation, experience, name recognition and endorsements are more important.
When black judicial candidates are supported by the majority political party, they can, and routinely, do, win, Mr. Goodman said.
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