On January 8, 2014, DHKL and co-counsel The ACLU Foundation of Southern California (ACLU SoCal), and the Law Offices of Robert Rubin announced a settlement of a lawsuit against the City of Anaheim to change how Anaheim voters elect their city council representatives.

At the time of the settlement, the City of Anaheim was the 10th largest city in California by population and the largest city in California to use at-large elections for its city council. The settlement requires the City of Anaheim to use district elections for its six city council members, while the mayor continues to be elected at-large.

Latino plaintiffs in the case alleged that the City’s at-large method of electing the Anaheim City Council diluted the voting rights of Latino voters and deprived the Latino community of the opportunity to elect candidates of their choice. DHKL and co-counsel filed the case under the California Voting Rights Act on June 28, 2012. At the time of the complaint, four of five current Council members were white and only three Latinos had served on the Anaheim City Council in the prior 20 years, despite the City’s large Latino population.