Butts v. City of New York

I would not reach the question whether New York Election Law § 6-162 (1978), the primary run-off law, violated the Fourteenth or Fifteenth Amendments (although I have trouble with the district court’s finding that the law was enacted for discriminatory purposes under Rogers v. Lodge, 458 U.S. 613, 102 S.Ct. 3272, 73 L.Ed.2d 1012 (1982)), because I believe that the district court properly found that the law does have a discriminatory effect so as to violate section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, 42 U.S.C. § 1973 (1982).

In 1982 Congress added subsection (b) to section 2 of the Voting Rights Act to…