Northwest Austin Municipal Utility District Number One v. Holder, No. 08-322; U.S. Supreme Court; opinion by Roberts, C.J.; partial dissent by Thomas, J.; decided June 22, 2009. On appeal from the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
The appellant is a small utility district with an elected board. Because it is located in Texas, it is required by § 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to seek federal preclearance before it can change anything about its elections, even though there is no evidence it has ever discriminated on the basis of race in those elections. The district filed suit seeking relief under the “bailout” provision in § 4(a) of the act, which allows a “political subdivision” to be released from the preclearance requirements if certain conditions are met. The district argued in the alternative that, if § 5 were interpreted to render it ineligible for bailout, § 5 was unconstitutional.
