Page:United States Reports 502 OCT. TERM 1991.pdf/658

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PRESLEY v. ETOWAH COUNTY COMM’N Opinion of the Court

operation of the Etowah and Russell County Commissions in violation of prior court orders, the Constitution, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U. S. C. § 2000d, and § 2 of the Voting Rights Act, 42 U. S. C. § 1973. In a series of amended complaints, appellants added claims under § 5. The § 5 claims alleged that Etowah County had violated the Act by failing to obtain preclearance of the 1987 Road Supervision and Common Fund Resolutions, and that Russell County had failed to preclear the 1979 change to the Unit System. Pursuant to 28 U. S. C. § 2284, a three-judge District Court was convened to hear appellants’ § 5 claims. The other claims still pend in the District Court. With respect to the issues now before us, a majority of the District Court held that neither the Common Fund Resolution of the Etowah County Commission nor the adoption of the Unit System in Russell County was subject to § 5 preclearance. The court held that changes in the responsibilities of elected officials are subject to preclearance when they “effect a significant relative change in the powers exercised by governmental officials elected by, or responsible to, substantially different constituencies of voters.” App. to Juris. Statement in No. 90–711, pp. 13a–14a. Applying its test, the court found that the Common Fund Resolution in Etowah County did not effect a significant change and adoption of the Unit System in Russell County did not transfer authority among officials responsible to different constituencies. We noted probable jurisdiction. 500 U. S. 914 (1991). We affirm the District Court but adopt a different interpretation of § 5 as the rationale for our decision. II We first considered the Voting Rights Act in South Carolina v. Katzenbach, 383 U. S. 301 (1966). Although we acknowledged that suspension of new voting regulations pending preclearance was an extraordinary departure from the traditional course of relations between the States and the