236
Syllabus
District Court's conclusion. Also, portions of Dr. Weber's testimony not cited by the District Court undercut his conclusions. Third, the District Court, while not accepting the contrary conclusion of appellants' expert, Dr. Peterson, did not (and as far as the record reveals, could not) reject much of the significant supporting factual information he provided, which showed that African-American-Democratic voters were more reliably Democratic and that District 12's boundaries were drawn to include reliable Democrats. Fourth, a statement about racial balance made by Senator Cooper, the legislative redistricting leader, shows that the legislature considered race along with other partisan and geographic considerations, but says little about whether race played a predominant role. And an e-mail sent by Gerry Cohen, a legislative staff member responsible for drafting districting plans, offers some support for the District Court's conclusion, but is less persuasive than the kinds of direct evidence that this Court has found significant in other redistricting cases. Fifth, appellees' maps summarizing voting behavior evidence tend to refute the District Court's "race, not politics," conclusion. Pp. 243-257.
(c) The modicum of evidence supporting the District Court's conclusion—the Cohen e-mail, Senator Cooper's statement, and some aspects of Dr. Weber's testimony—taken together, does not show that racial considerations predominated in the boundaries' drawing, because race in this case correlates closely with political behavior. Where majority-minority districts are at issue and racial identification correlates highly with political affiliation, the party attacking the boundaries must show at the least that the legislature could have achieved its legitimate political objectives in alternative ways that are comparably consistent with traditional districting principles and that those alternatives would have brought about significantly greater racial balance. Because appellees failed to make any such showing here, the District Court's contrary findings are clearly erroneous. Pp. 257-258.
133 F. Supp. 2d 407, reversed.
Breyer, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which Stevens, O'Connor, Souter, and Ginsburg, JJ., joined. Thomas, J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which Rehnquist, C. J., and Scalia and Kennedy, JJ., joined, post, p. 259.
Walter E. Dellinger argued the cause for the state appellants. With him on the briefs were Michael F. Easley, former Attorney General of North Carolina, Tiare B. Smiley and Norma S. Harrell, Special Deputy Attorneys General,
Page: Index Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 NextLast modified: October 4, 2007