At-large election systems in a number of cities and school districts have been found to have diluted minority voting strength. In communities where whites make up the majority of voters and where people generally vote in racial blocs, white voters can defeat minority-preferred candidates and elect white-preferred candidates for at-large districts that encompass the entire electorate. Smaller single-member districts can help minority voters elect candidates of their choice, because they can be drawn so that minority voters make up a majority in some of the districts.

Judge Rosenthal’s 113-page ruling describes a racially charged atmosphere in Pasadena politics to support its finding of intentional discrimination.

Councilman Ornaldo Ybarra testified that when he was campaigning in 2009, white residents told him that they “weren’t going to vote for a wetback.” Richard Scott, the city’s director of community relations and an ally of the mayor, directed a vendor to “pull out Hispanic names” from the mailing list of voters who would receive campaign materials in favor of the 6-2 map.

“At trial, Mr. Scott testified that when he wrote ‘pull out Hispanic names,’ he meant to direct the vendor to pull out the names of Democratic voters,” Judge Rosenthal wrote, one of several instances in which Pasadena officials “understood race and party as interchangeable proxies. By clearly and explicitly intending to diminish Latinos’ voting power for partisan ends, Pasadena officials intentionally discriminated on the basis of race.”

Pasadena is a majority-minority city of 150,000, where Hispanics account for 62 percent of the population but have long complained about a lack of city services and attention in their neighborhoods, which have aging roads and infrastructure. The city’s white population and its Latino population remain largely physically divided, as the judge noted. North Pasadena is older, poorer and predominately Hispanic, while on the other side of the Spencer Highway, South Pasadena is newer, wealthier and predominately white.

“They don’t listen to us,” said Patricia Gonzales, 49, a community activist who lives on the north side and who was one of the plaintiffs. “It’s like what we say doesn’t really matter.”