Amicus Brief Filed, 1999
In 1992, citizens of the City of Chicago Heights filed suit against the city for violating Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. The plaintiffs claimed that the city's at-large, winner-take-all system of elections illegally diluted minority voting power. The trial court found that the elections system was illegal, and allowed the city to adopt a new election plan by referendum. The plaintiffs appealed this decision to the Federal District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, who held that the city's plan did not remedy the Section 2 violation. The District Court imposed cumulative voting as a remedy for the violation, and the case was appealled to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in 1999. FairVote took this opportunity to submit an amicus brief to the court, urging it to uphold the District Court's decision. FairVote argued that cumulative voting was a legal remedy under the law, and that the imposition of cumulative voting in this case was reasonable.
Amicus Brief Filed with Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals