Presley v. Etowah County Comm'n
Presley v. Etowah County Commission, 502 U.S. 491 (1992), was a United States Supreme Court voting rights case where the Court held by a 6—3 majority that the abolition of road districts did not violate the Fifteenth Amendment or the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Background The case arose as a result of efforts by Alabama's Etowah County to restructure its roads board beginning in 1986. Between 1964 and the restructuring, members of Etowah County's roads board were elected at-large, but from 1986 onwards the county changed the structure of its roads board to six single-member districts. In 1987, the majority-white commission voted to have all the money put in a common fund rather than in separate districts as originally intended. Lawrence Presley, a newly elected black member, argued to the United States District Court for the Middle District of Alabama that the changes in the distribution of authority were a form of racial discrimination and a violation of section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 which permits Alabama's government to alter practices related to voting only after receiving judicial preclearance. Presley would be joined by the first two black members from neighbouring Russell County, Nathaniel Gosha, III,