Ninth Circuit considers Guam’s racially discriminatory plebiscite registraton law

[Valin]

Power Line:

Paul Mirengoff

August 28, 2014

 

The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit heard oral argument yesterday in the case of Davis v. Guam. The hearing occurred in Guam, the first time the Ninth Circuit has sat there since 2002.

 

Mr. Davis, a resident of Guam, attempted to register to vote in a plebiscite on Guam’s relationship to the United States. He was denied permission to register because he could not trace his ancestry to a native inhabitant of Guam. Guam law allows only those with correct ancestry to vote in the future status plebiscite.

 

According to a report by Davis’ expert, nearly every ancestor who could “confer” on a modern descendant the right to register to vote was a member of the Chamorro racial group. Thus, Guam has effectively conditioned the right to vote in its plebiscite on race.

 

Therefore, Davis claims that this racial prerequisite for registering to vote violates the Fifteenth and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution, the Voting Rights Act, and other federal civil rights statutes. However, a district court ruled against him on the theory that he suffered no injury from the statute that excludes him, on racial grounds, from registering to vote because the election has not been scheduled and may not occur,

 

(Snip)