Cite as: 507 U. S. 146 (1993)
Opinion of the Court
384 U. S. 641, 647-648 (1966) ("Under the distribution of powers effected by the Constitution, the States establish qualifications for voting for state officers" and such qualifications are valid unless they violate the Constitution or a federal statute).
Appellees' complaint does not allege that the State's conscious use of race in redistricting violates the Equal Protection Clause; the District Court below did not address the issue; and neither party raises it here. Accordingly, we express no view on how such a claim might be evaluated. We hold only that, under § 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, as amended, 42 U. S. C. § 1973, plaintiffs can prevail on a dilution claim only if they show that, under the totality of the circumstances, the State's apportionment scheme has the effect of diminishing or abridging the voting strength of the protected class.
C
In its order of March 19, 1992, the District Court found that the 1992 plan's creation of majority-minority districts "ha[d] a dilutive effect on black votes." App. to Juris. Statement 141a. Again we disagree.
In Thornburg v. Gingles, supra, this Court held that plaintiffs claiming vote dilution through the use of multimember districts must prove three threshold conditions. First, they must show that the minority group " 'is sufficiently large and geographically compact to constitute a majority in a single-member district.' " Second, they must prove that the minority group " 'is politically cohesive.' " Third, the plaintiffs must establish " 'that the white majority votes sufficiently as a bloc to enable it . . . usually to defeat the minority's preferred candidate.' " Growe, ante, at 40 (quoting Gingles, supra, at 50-51). The District Court apparently thought the three Gingles factors inapplicable because Ohio has single-member rather than multimember districts. 794 F. Supp., at 699 ("Gingles' preconditions are not applicable to the apportionment of single-member districts"). In Growe,
157
Page: Index Previous 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 NextLast modified: October 4, 2007