38
Opinion of the Court
to apply the preconditions for a vote-dilution violation set out by this Court for challenges to multimember districts, see Thornburg v. Gingles, 478 U. S. 30 (1986), the court instead proceeded directly to the "totality of circumstances" test in § 2(b) and found unlawful dilution. It rejected, as a basis for its redistricting plan, Chapter 246, Chapter 246 as modified by Senate File 1596, and the state court's version of Chapter 246, and adopted instead its special masters' legislative plan, which includes a Senate district stretching from south Minneapolis, around the downtown area, and then into the northern part of the city in order to link minority populations. This oddly shaped creation, Senate District 59, is 43 percent black and 60 percent minority, including at least three separately identifiable minority groups.4 In the District Court's view, based on "[j]udicial experience, as well as the results of past elections," a super-majority minority Senate district in Minneapolis was required in order for a districting scheme to comply with the Voting Rights Act.
leading to nomination or election in the State or political subdivision are not equally open to participation by members of a class of citizens protected by subsection (a) of this section in that its members have less opportunity than other members of the electorate to participate in the political process and to elect representatives of their choice. The extent to which members of a protected class have been elected to office in the State or political subdivision is one circumstance which may be considered: Provided, That nothing in this section establishes a right to have members of a protected class elected in numbers equal to their proportion in the population."
4 These percentages refer to total population. To establish whether a § 2 violation has occurred (which presumably requires application of the same standard that measures whether a § 2 violation has been remedied) other courts have looked to, not the district's total minority population, but the district's minority population of voting age. See, e. g., Romero v. Pomona, 883 F. 2d 1418, 1425-1426, and n. 13 (CA9 1989) (citing cases). Gingles itself repeatedly refers to the voting population, see, e. g., 478 U. S., at 48, 50. We have no need to pass upon this aspect of the District Court's opinion.
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