1302
Opinion in Chambers
Arizona v. Ripon Society Inc., 409 U. S. 1222, 1224 (1972) (Rehnquist, J., in chambers). Like the Court of Appeals, I am doubtful of the District Court's authority to issue the present order. However, while the city may have been guilty of overimaginative lawyering in obtaining it, I have no reason to believe the city was acting in bad faith in the sense of seeking to frustrate the purposes of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Moreover, in my view both the applicants and the United States share some responsibility, by their delay, for this matter's having been presented and decided in inordinate haste. Finally, and most important, I am not certain that more good than harm to the public interest will be achieved by staying the District Court's order, making the imminent elections (in which some people have already cast absentee ballots) impossible. On this last point, which seems to me in the present case the determinative one, I am inclined to rely upon the judgment of those federal judges on the scene, who have declined the stay.
For the foregoing reasons, the application is denied.
Last modified: October 4, 2007