Court Rejects Appeal of Redistricting Plan : Politics: Ruling clears the way for implementing the new boundaries for the 1992 elections. Plan still faces review by the U.S. Justice Department.

A federal court panel Tuesday rejected a bid by congressional Democrats and a Latino legal group to overturn the new California reapportionment plan approved Monday by the state Supreme Court.

In a three-page order, the three-judge panel moved swiftly to clear the way for implementation of the plan for the 1992 elections. The new boundaries are widely expected to give Republicans a chance to control the state Assembly and possibly win a majority of the state’s congressional seats.

While the ruling made clear that the court would not intervene before the elections this year, the court did not preclude future challenges--when there would be time for more extensive proceedings--to the validity of the plan under the federal Constitution and the Voting Rights Act.

The plan also still must be reviewed by the U.S. Justice Department before this year’s elections to ensure that it adequately protects the voting strength of racial minorities.

Denise Hulett, a lawyer for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, expressed disappointment with the ruling but said the group would make no further challenge to use of the plan in the 1992 elections. Hulett said a renewed effort--seeking a full-scale trial--to overturn the plan would be made before the 1994 elections. Meanwhile, she said, MALDEF will urge the Justice Department to withhold approval of the plan.

An attorney for the Democratic congressional delegation could not be reached for comment and it was not known whether the group would take the issue to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Daniel Kolkey of Los Angeles, a lawyer for Gov. Pete Wilson, said it was very likely the plan would be used in this year’s elections. “There could not have been a more fair process than the one used by the state Supreme Court in adopting these districts,” Kolkey said. “This ought to ensure that we have fair districts in California for the upcoming elections.”

In a 6-1 ruling Monday, the state Supreme Court approved with only a minor change a redistricting plan prepared at its direction by a special panel of three retired state appeal court justices.

The hotly contested redistricting issue had been taken to the high court by Wilson after the Republican governor and the Democratic-controlled Legislature failed to agree on a plan establishing new boundaries for the remainder of the decade.

Anticipating high court approval of the special panel’s plan, lawyers for most of the Democrats and MALDEF went to federal district court here challenging the congressional boundaries under the plan.

The two groups contended the plan did not adequately follow one-person, one-vote guidelines and protect minority electoral power as required by the federal Voting Rights Act. They asked the three-judge panel to adopt alternative plans they proposed. Lawyers for Wilson defended the state plan and urged the federal court to stay out of the matter and recognize the state Supreme Court ruling as the final word.

In an order signed by U.S. District Judges Fern M. Smith and Charles A. Legge, the federal panel said it was denying the request made by the Democrats and MALDEF and would explain its reasons in an opinion to be issued later.

The third panel member, Judge Thomas Tang of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, issued a concurrence calling the order a “narrow” one and saying that the Democrats and MALDEF had only “not made a sufficiently strong showing” to warrant blocking the plan for use during the forthcoming election.

“Our decision does not foreclose further proceedings in this court addressing the constitutionality and consistency with the Voting Rights Act of the California Supreme Court’s plan,” Tang wrote.