Because the U.S. census is now completed and tallied, Virginia will maintain eleven seats in its congressional delegation in the U.S. House of Representatives. Now it is up to the legislature to pass legislation that redraws the state and federal voting districts. 
 

Over the last eight years, the federal laws guiding this process have undergone major changes. No fewer than ten cases have been heard by the U.S. Supreme Court between 1993 and 2000. In each of these cases, the Court has been emphatically clear that race may not be used as the predominant factor in drawing districts. 

It is to be hoped the Virginia Legislature will not repeat the mistakes it made in 1991 when they systematically segregated voting districts on the basis of race and ethnicity. This resulted in a costly lawsuit in which the congressional district lines in the state were redrawn by order of the federal courts to comply with the Constitution.

This time Virginians deserve compact, neighborhood- and community- based voting districts that unite us as Americans regardless of our skin color. Common neighborhood issues such as schools, crime, roads, and job opportunities are much more important than race. Indeed, the Supreme Court noted, "those common concerns do more to unite people who live close to one another than their race can do to separate them.'' 

The racial gerrymandering that pervaded the last plan should not be allowed to infect the new plan, regardless of how cleverly it may be disguised. We should not have seats drawn to ensure the election of a person with a specific skin color or ethnic heritage, any more than we should have districts drawn to ensure the defeat of a person because of his race or ethnicity.

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was passed to protect minority voters, not minority or majority politicians. Race and ethnicity cannot be used as an instrument to protect incumbent officeholders. Literacy tests were effective at protecting incumbents, but they too were proven to be illegal.  

In the same vein, political affiliation cannot be used as a proxy for race. Districts that resemble Rorschach tests won't pass constitutional scrutiny if race correlates perfectly with the boundaries, even if partisan affiliation is claimed as the justification. In the landmark civil rights case of Gomillion v. Lightfoot decided over 40 years ago, Tuskeegee, Alabama disincorporated black neighborhoods from the city - literally redrawing the city's boundaries to exclude black citizens. Everyone knew the city was motivated by race, not political affiliation.

In virtually every voting rights case that came before the US Supreme Court during the 1990s, the U.S. Department of Justice Voting Rights Section, has been found to have misinterpreted and misapplied the Voting Rights Act. Just a few months ago, the Supreme Court found DOJ acted improperly in blocking Bossier Parrish Louisiana from implementing a school board districting plan. No matter what directives the state of Virginia receives from DOJ, they should be reviewed with a skeptical eye by the Attorney General and retained outside counsel experienced in voting rights issues.

There are a number of common sense rules that the Legislature should follow when drawing lines this time:

1. Garden-variety residential streets should not be split into different districts, nor should hundreds of new voting precincts---some with no people in them---be created.
2. Neighborhoods and subdivisions in major metropolitan areas are easily identifiable. Civic association boundaries and elementary school attendance zones are just two readily available tools that should be considered when drawing lines that keep neighborhoods together.
3. Major demarcation landmarks, such as freeways, waterways, city limits, etc., should be the boundaries between districts so that citizens will generally know the broad outlines of their district. 
4. Draw an entire district within the boundaries of a county if the population permits before  including another county.
5. Don't link inner-city neighborhoods in one city to inner-city neighborhoods in another city. In the past, far too many inner-city residents have been cut away from their neighbors only to be linked to other inner-city areas hundreds of miles away. It is gravely wrong to separate inner-city residents, most of whom are black or Hispanic, from their neighbors a few blocks away.

Advocates of race-based redistricting claim that a person can be represented only by someone of like skin color, an assumption belied by the fact that most blacks support Ted Kennedy but oppose Alan Keyes. It is also far from clear that minorities are best served by a system in which they solely determine a few legislators and Congressmen but have virtually no influence over all the others. 

Since these justifications ring hollow, the real motivation for the use of race must be to create uncompetitive districts in which both conservative white Republican and liberal black Democrat incumbents effectively receive lifetime offices. An artificially high number of such districts reduces citizens' interest and participation in the political process and fails to produce the centrist elected officials often needed to broker the legislative compromises that are so vital in a deliberative democracy.