Voluntary Constituencies: Modified At-Large Voting as a Remedy for Minority Vote Dilution in Judicial Elections

Abstract

The Supreme Court has recently held in two cases that judicial elections are covered by section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and that trial judges are not exempt from the Act because they happen to hold "single person offices "-that is, exercise an authority independent of others who hold a similar office. The immediate, practical effect of the decision will be to remove a jurisdictional hurdle for the Blacks and Latinos who have suits pending in several states charging that multimember judicial elections violate section 2.