United States v. Blaine County

Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act prohibits any voting procedure that results in a denial of the right to vote. 42 U.S.C. § 1973 . The United States brought this section 2 action against Blaine County alleging that the County’s at-large voting system for electing members to the County Commission prevents American Indians from participating equally in the County’s political process. The district court determined that section 2 was a constitutional exercise of Congress’s powers under the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, and that Blaine County’s at-large voting system violated section 2. In this appeal, Blaine County challenges both of those rulings. 1 We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 , and we affirm.

I.

Blaine County, located in north central Montana, is vast and sparsely populated. Its 7,009 residents are spread out over 4,638 square miles, which places the County in the top 5 percent of counties nationwide in terms of size. American Indians constitute 45.2 percent of the population and 38.8 percent of the voting age population, while whites make up 52.6 percent of the population and 59.4 percent of the voting age population. The American Indian population is…