Disparate Impact, Unified Law

Abstract

The last decade has seen the largest wave of franchise restrictions since the dark days of Jim Crow. In response to this array of limits, lower courts have recently converged on a two-part test under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. This test asks if an electoral practice (1) causes a disparate racial impact; (2) through its interaction with social and historical discrimination. Unfortunately, the apparent judicial consensus is only skin-deep. Courts bitterly disagree as to basic questions like whether the test applies to specific policies or systems of election administration; whether it is violated by all, or only substantial, disparities; and whether disparities refer to citizens’ compliance with a requirement or their turnout at the polls. The test also sits on thin constitutional ice. It comes close to finding fault whenever a measure produces a disparate impact, and so coexists uneasily with Fourteenth Amendment norms about colorblindness and Congress’s remedial authority.

The Section 2 status quo, then, is untenable. To fix it, this Article proposes to look beyond election law to the statutes that govern disparate impact liability in employment law, housing law, and other areas. Under these statutes, breaches are not determined using the two-part Section 2 test. Instead, courts employ a burden-shifting framework that first requires the plaintiff to prove that a particular practice causes a significant racial disparity; and then gives the defendant the opportunity to show that the practice is necessary to achieve a substantial interest. This framework, the Article argues, would answer the questions that have vexed courts in Section 2 cases. The framework would also ensure Section 2’s constitutionality by allowing jurisdictions to justify their challenged policies. Accordingly, the solution to Section 2’s woes would not require any leaps of doctrinal innovation. It would only take the unification of disparate impact law.

Keywords: voting rights act, disparate impact, vote denial