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Opinion of the Court
the purpose or effect of denying or abridging the right to vote on account of race, color, or membership in a language minority group, as required under § 5. The fact that the District Court identified the same issue as posing a hurdle to preclearance further suggests that DOJ's request was not frivolous. 189 F. Supp. 2d, at 508-509. The request for more information was not frivolous or unwarranted at the time it was made, regardless of whether it ultimately develops that Mauldin and the Chancery Court's assertion of jurisdiction to redistrict are not voting changes that required preclearance.
B
Appellants contend that even if the State Chancery Court's plan was not precleared by operation of law on February 25, 2002, it was precleared on April 22, 60 days after the state attorney general submitted the additional information requested. We think not.
Section 5 provides that "[w]henever a [covered jurisdiction] shall enact or seek to administer" a voting change, such a change may be enforced if it is submitted to the Attorney General and there is no objection by the Attorney General within 60 days. 42 U. S. C. § 1973c (emphasis added). Clearly the State Chancery Court's redistricting plan was not "enacted" by the State of Mississippi. An "enactment" is the product of legislation, not adjudication. See Webster's New International Dictionary 841 (2d ed. 1949) (defining "enact" as "[t]o make into an act or law; esp., to perform the legislative act with reference to (a bill) which gives it the validity of law"); Black's Law Dictionary 910 (7th ed. 1999) (defining "legislate" as "[t]o make or enact laws"). The web of state and federal litigation before us is the consequence of the Mississippi Legislature's failure to enact a plan. The Chancery Court's redistricting plan, then, could be eligible for preclearance only if the State was "seek[ing] to administer" it.
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