In 1993, about 20% of the state population identified as Black. Shaw v. Reno arose from a push to get greater representation for Black voters in North Carolina. Hirabayashi v. United States(1943). Karcher v. Daggett, 462 U. S. 725, 755 (1983) (STEVENS, J., concurring) ("One need not use Justice Stewart's classic definition of obscenity-'I know it when I see it' -as an ultimate standard for judging the constitutionality of a gerrymander to recognize that dramatically irregular shapes may have sufficient probative force to call for an explanation" (footnotes omitted)). Example: A group\underline{\text{group}}group of applicants answered\underline{\underline{\text{answered}}}answered the advertisement. These lawmakers are quite aware that the districts they create will have a white or a black majority; and with each new district comes the unavoidable choice as to the racial composition of the district." A new issue of 20-year bonds: The flotation costs of the new bonds would be 4% of the proceeds. Under the three-part test established by Thornburg v. Gingles, 478 U. S. 30, 50-51 (1986), a minority group must show that it could constitute the majority in a single-member district, "that it is politically cohesive," and "that the white majority votes sufficiently as a bloc to enable it usually to defeat the minority's preferred candidate." A. Thernstrom, Whose Votes Count? Part of the explanation for the majority's approach has to do, perhaps, with the emotions stirred by words such as "segregation" and "political apartheid." Brief for State Appellees 5, n. 6. Limited by its own terms to cases involving unusually shaped districts, the Court's approach nonetheless will unnecessarily hinder to some extent a State's voluntary effort to ensure a modicum of minority representation. Shaw. Significant changes in the area of redistricting and gerrymandering, Constitutional Clause/Amendment (Shaw v. Reno), 1. At issue in Wright were four districts contained in a New York apportionment statute. Our focus is on appellants' claim that the State engaged in unconstitutional racial gerrymandering. Unlike other contexts in which we have addressed the State's conscious use of race, see, e. g., Richmond v. J. J.). Shaw v. Reno. This problem continues the Draper Consulting situation from previous problems. For much of our Nation's history, that right sadly has been denied to many because of race. See post, at 678 (dissenting opinion). Such evidence will always be useful in cases that lack other evidence of invidious intent. ), or that such had been the State's intent, see id., at 179-180 (Stewart, J., joined by Powell, J., concurring in judgment). 15, 1. Brief for Appellants 57. Appellants, five North Carolina residents, filed this action against appellee state and federal officials, claiming that the State had created an unconstitutional racial gerrymander in violation of, among other things, the Fourteenth Amendment. The plan amounts to unconstitutional discrimination on the basis of race 3.District 12 is not compact or contiguous which are criteria for district maps 4. Id., at 313. It also dismissed the complaint against the state appellees, finding, among other things, that, under United Jewish Organizations of Williams burgh, Inc. v. Carey, 430 U. S. 144 (UJO), appellants had failed to state an equal protection claim because favoring minority voters was not discriminatory in the constitutional sense and the plan did not lead to proportional underrepresentation of white voters statewide. Ibid. JUSTICE O'CONNOR DELIVERED THE OPINION OF THE COURT. of Gal. These principles apply not only to legislation that contains explicit racial distinctions, but also to those "rare" statutes that, although race neutral, are, on their face, "unexplainable on grounds other than race." See Fullilove v. Klutznick, 448 U. S. 448,524-525, n. 3 (1980) (Stewart, J., dissenting) ("No person in [UJOJ was deprived of his electoral franchise"); Regents of Univ. The difficulty of proof, of course, does not mean that a racial gerrymander, once established, should receive less scrutiny under the Equal Protection Clause than other state legislation classifying citizens by race. ); id., at 179-180 (Stewart, J., joined by Powell, J., concurring in judgment). . Nor is there any support for the. the purchase to her American Express card. But as JUSTICE WHITE points out, see ante, at 672 (dissenting opinion), and as the Court acknowledges, see ante, at 647, we have held that such principles are not constitutionally required, with the consequence that their absence cannot justify the distinct constitutional regime put in place by the Court today. Carr. tution), it has seemed more appropriate for the Court to identify impermissible uses by describing particular effects sufficiently serious to justify recognition under the Fourteenth Amendment. Id., at 349 (concurring opinion). And those three Justices specifically concluded that race-based districting, as a response to racially polarized voting, is constitutionally permissible only when the State "employ[s] sound districting principles," and only when the affected racial group's "residential patterns afford the opportunity of creating districts in which they will be in the majority." The shapes of the two districts in question were quite controversial. 412 U. S., at 754. The central explanation has to do with the nature of the redistricting process. The majority first took judicial notice of a fact omitted from appellants' complaint: that appellants are white. The most compelling evidence of the Court's position prior to this day, for it is most directly on point, is UJO, 430 U. S. 144 (1977). Sickels, Dragons, Bacon Strips, and Dumbbells-Who's Afraid of Reapportionment?, 75 Yale L. J. We also do not decide. 2. But it soon became apparent that guaranteeing equal access to the polls would not suffice to root out other racially discriminatory voting practices. The ruling was significant in the area of redistricting and racial gerrymandering. The state appellees assert that the deliberate creation of majority-minority districts is the most precise way-indeed the only effective way-to overcome the effects of racially polarized voting. For the following sentence, locate the action verb and underline it twice. SHAW ET AL. Put differently, we believe that reapportionment is one area in which appearances do matter. Enduring Legacy. With respect to this incident, one writer has observed that "understanding why the configurations are shaped as they are requires us to know at least as much about the interests of incumbent Democratic politicians, as it does knowledge of the Voting Rights Act." Express racial classifications are immediately suspect because, "[a]bsent searching judicial inquiry , there is simply no way of determining what classifications are 'benign' or 'remedial' and what classi-. After the Attorney General of the United States objected to the plan pursuant to 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, 79 Stat. When a newly created district cannot be explained by means other than race, it is subject to strict scrutiny. Drawing on the "one person, one vote" principle, this Court recognized that "[t]he right to vote can be affected by adilutionof voting power as well as by an absolute prohibition on casting a ballot." I respectfully dissent. The State's revised plan contained a second majority-black district in the north-central region. The Attorney General, acting through the Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division, interposed a formal objection to the General Assembly's plan. Affirmative Action and Minority Voting Rights 44 (1987). by Wayne R. Arden and Jeffrey M. Wice; for the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights under Law et al. Because the State's purpose here was to comply with the Voting Rights Act, and because the General Assembly's plan did not lead to proportional underrepresentation of white voters state-. William H. Rehnquist Rehnquist. 808 F. *Briefs of amici curiae urging reversal were filed for the American Jewish Congress by Marc D. Stern and Lois C. Waldman; for the Republican National Committee by Benjamin L. Ginsberg and Michael A. Hess; and for the Washington Legal Foundation et al. Arlington Heights v. Metropolitan Housing Development Corp.(1977). Gomillion v. Lightfoot, 364 U. S. 339, 340 (1960). It reinforces the perception that members of the same racial group-regardless of their age, education, economic status, or the community in which they live-think alike, share the same political interests, and will prefer the same candidates at the polls. A reapportionment statute typically does not classify persons at all; it classifies tracts of land, or addresses. 808 F. to Juris. It is also unnecessary to decide at this stage of the litigation whether the plan advances a state interest distinct from the Act: eradicating the effects of past racial discrimination. The State chose to submit its plan to the Attorney General for preclearance. To date, we have held that only two types of state voting practices could give rise to a constitutional claim. This Court has held political gerrymanders to be justiciable under the Equal Protection Clause. Washington Post, Apr. I nevertheless agree that the conscious use of race in redistricting does not violate the Equal Protection Clause unless the effect of the redistricting plan is to deny a particular group equal access to the political process or to minimize its voting strength unduly. Constitutional Principle. Every Member of the Court assumed that the plaintiffs' allegation that the statute "segregate[d] eligible voters by race and place of origin" stated a constitutional claim. On the same reasoning, I would affirm the District Court's dismissal of appellants' claim in this instance. In other words, the statute was invalid because, on its face, it could not be explained on grounds other than race. Supp., at 476-477 (Voorhees, C. J., concurring in part and dissenting in part). In the example the verb is answered. Appellants sought declaratory and injunctive relief against the state appellees. Bandemer, 478 U. S., at 164 (Powell, J., concurring in part and dissenting in part) (internal quotation marks omitted). In the 1870's, for example, opponents of Reconstruction in Mississippi "concentrated the bulk of the black population in a 'shoestring' Congressional district running the length of the Mississippi River, leaving five others with white majorities." Id., at 357 (internal quotation marks omitted). See, e. g., Wygant v. Jackson Bd. JUSTICE SOUTER contends that exacting scrutiny of racial gerrymanders under the Fourteenth Amendment is inappropriate because reapportionment "nearly always require[s] some consideration of race for legitimate reasons." Although the boundary lines were somewhat irregular, the majority reasoned, they were not so bizarre as to permit of no other conclusion. 92-357. T. HOMAS. To that end, however, there must be an allegation of discriminatory purpose and effect, for the constitutionality of a race-conscious redistricting plan. As I understand the theory that is put forth, a redistricting plan that uses race to "segregate" voters by drawing "uncouth" lines is harmful in a way that a plan that uses race to distribute voters differently is not, for the former "bears an uncomfortable resemblance to political apartheid." See Gomillion v. Lightfoot, 364 U. S. 339. by Donald B. Verrilli, Jr., Scott A. Sinder, Kevin X. Crowley, and James A. Peters. As we have said, however, the very reason that the Equal Protection Clause demands strict scrutiny of all racial classifications is because without it, a court cannot determine whether or not the discrimination truly is "benign." 21A375 is treated as a . In that, state efforts to remedy minority vote dilution are wholly unlike what typically has been labeled "affirmative action." 5 See Richmond v. J. 2. See App. The purposes of favoring minority voters and complying with the Voting Rights Act are not discriminatory in the constitutional sense, the court reasoned, and majority-minority districts have an impermissibly discriminatory effect only when they unfairly dilute or cancel out white voting strength. The same principle pertains in nondistricting aspects of voting law, where race-based discrimination places the disfavored voters at the disadvantage of exclusion from the franchise without any alternative benefit. Richmond v. J. You can explore additional available newsletters here. Where it exists, most often the result is that neither white nor black can be elected from a district in which his race is in the minority." "[L]ike bloc-voting by race, [the racial composition of geographic area] too is a fact of life, well known to those responsible for drawing electoral district lines. Id., at 133 (emphasis added). 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