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Northwest Austin Municipal Utility District No. 1 v. Holder

Supreme Court of the United States · 2009 · Constitutional Law

Constitutional LawVoting Rights ActStatutory InterpretationConstitutional AvoidanceVoting Rights ActSection 5Section 4bailout

Facts

Northwest Austin Municipal Utility District Number One is a small Texas utility district created in 1987 to provide local services and governed by an elected five-member board. Because it is located in Texas, it is subject to §5 of the Voting Rights Act and must obtain federal preclearance before changing anything about its elections, even though there is no evidence it has ever discriminated on the basis of race. The district does not register voters itself, although it is responsible for its own elections, which Travis County administers for administrative reasons. The district sought relief through the Act's bailout provision, but the lower court held bailout was unavailable because the district was not a county, parish, or voter-registering subunit.

Issue

Whether the utility district qualifies as a "political subdivision" eligible to seek bailout under §4 of the Voting Rights Act even though it does not register its own voters. If so, the Court also had to decide whether it should avoid reaching the district's alternative constitutional challenge to §5.

Rule

The statutory definition of "political subdivision" in §14(c)(2) does not govern every use of that term in the Voting Rights Act. In light of the Act's structure, prior precedent, the 1982 amendments permitting piecemeal bailout, and the canon of constitutional avoidance, all political subdivisions in covered jurisdictions may file a bailout suit under §4(a), not only counties, parishes, and voter-registering subunits.

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One of 10 multiple-choice questions for this case. Pick an answer to see why.

Red Mesa Water Authority, a special district in Arizona, is subject to federal preclearance requirements because Arizona is a covered jurisdiction. The authority sues in Washington, D.C., arguing first that the statute permits it to file a bailout action and, only if that reading is rejected, that the preclearance regime is unconstitutional as applied to it.

If the court concludes that the statute fairly permits Red Mesa Water Authority to seek bailout, what should it do next?

Explanation. The Court emphasized the ordinary rule that constitutional questions should not be decided unnecessarily. When a party frames the constitutional argument in the alternative, and the statutory ruling affords the requested relief by allowing the party to pursue bailout, the court should resolve the case on statutory grounds and avoid the constitutional issue.