Johnson v. De Grandy, 512 U.S. 997, 4 (1994)

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Cite as: 512 U. S. 997 (1994)

Opinion of the Court

tricts. App. to Juris. Statement 2a, 203a. As to the Senate, the court found that a fourth majority-Hispanic district could be drawn in addition to the three provided by SJR 2-G, but only at the expense of black voters in the area. Id., at 202a; 815 F. Supp., at 1560. The court was of two minds about the implication of this finding, once observing that it meant the legislature's plan for the Senate was a violation of § 2 but without a remedy, once saying the plan did not violate § 2 at all.5 In any event, it ordered elections to be held using SJR 2-G's senatorial districts.

In a later, expanded opinion the court reviewed the totality of circumstances as required by § 2 and Thornburg v. Gingles, 478 U. S. 30 (1986). In explaining Dade County's "tripartite politics," in which "ethnic factors . . . predominate over all other[s] . . . ," 815 F. Supp., at 1572, the court found political cohesion within each of the Hispanic and black populations but none between the two, id., at 1569, and a tendency of non-Hispanic whites to vote as a bloc to bar minority groups from electing their chosen candidates except in a dis-5 The court's judgment filed July 2, 1992, App. to Juris. Statement 5a, said SJR 2-G's state senatorial districts "do not violate Section 2," but its subsequent opinion explaining the judgment said the senatorial districts do indeed violate § 2, and that its earlier language "should be read as holding that the Florida Senate plan does not violate Section 2 such that a different remedy must be imposed." 815 F. Supp., at 1582 (emphasis added).

Any conflict in these two formulations is of no consequence here. "This Court 'reviews judgments, not statements in opinions,' " California v. Rooney, 483 U. S. 307, 311 (1987) (per curiam) (quoting Black v. Cutter Laboratories, 351 U. S. 292, 297 (1956)), and the De Grandy plaintiffs and the United States have appealed the failure of the District Court to provide relief for alleged § 2 violations in SJR 2-G's senatorial districts. The State is entitled to "urge any grounds which would lend support to the judgment below," Dayton Bd. of Ed. v. Brinkman, 433 U. S. 406, 419 (1977), including the argument it makes here that the District Court was correct not to impose a remedy different from SJR 2-G because the State's reapportionment plan did not violate § 2.

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