156
Opinion of the Court
ess. 42 U. S. C. § 1973(b) (emphasis added). The burden of "show[ing]" the prohibited effect, of course, is on the plaintiff; surely Congress could not have intended the State to prove the invalidity of its own apportionment scheme. See Gingles, 478 U. S., at 46 (plaintiffs must demonstrate that the device results in unequal access to the electoral process); id., at 49, n. 15 (plaintiffs must "prove their claim before they may be awarded relief"). The District Court relieved appel-lees of that burden in this case solely because the State had created majority-minority districts. Because that departure from the statutorily required allocation of burdens finds no support in the statute, it was error for the District Court to impose it.
Of course, the federal courts may not order the creation of majority-minority districts unless necessary to remedy a violation of federal law. See Growe, ante, at 40-41. But that does not mean that the State's powers are similarly limited. Quite the opposite is true: Federal courts are barred from intervening in state apportionment in the absence of a violation of federal law precisely because it is the domain of the States, and not the federal courts, to conduct apportionment in the first place. Time and again we have emphasized that " 'reapportionment is primarily the duty and responsibility of the State through its legislature or other body, rather than of a federal court.' " Growe, ante, at 34 (quoting Chapman v. Meier, 420 U. S. 1, 27 (1975)). Accord, Connor v. Finch, 431 U. S. 407, 414 (1977) ("We have repeatedly emphasized that 'legislative reapportionment is primarily a matter for legislative consideration and determination' " (quoting Reynolds v. Sims, 377 U. S. 533, 586 (1964))). Because the "States do not derive their reapportionment authority from the Voting Rights Act, but rather from independent provisions of state and federal law," Brief for United States as Amicus Curiae 12, the federal courts are bound to respect the States' apportionment choices unless those choices contravene federal requirements. Cf. Katzenbach v. Morgan,
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