Cite as: 512 U. S. 997 (1994)
Opinion of the Court
jority in a single-member district' "; that it be " 'politically cohesive' "; and that " 'the white majority vot[e] sufficiently as a bloc to enable it . . . usually to defeat the minority's preferred candidate.' " Id., at 40 (quoting Thornburg v. Gingles, 478 U. S., at 50-51). Of course, as we reflected in Voinovich and amplify later in this opinion, "the Gingles factors cannot be applied mechanically and without regard to the nature of the claim." 507 U. S., at 158.
In Voinovich we explained how manipulation of district lines can dilute the voting strength of politically cohesive minority group members, whether by fragmenting the minority voters among several districts where a bloc-voting majority can routinely outvote them, or by packing them into one or a small number of districts to minimize their influence in the districts next door. See id., at 153-154. Section 2 prohibits either sort of line-drawing where its result, " 'interact[ing] with social and historical conditions,' impairs the ability of a protected class to elect its candidate of choice on an equal basis with other voters." Ibid. (quoting Gingles, supra, at 47).7
Plaintiffs in Growe and Voinovich failed to show vote dilution because the former did not prove political cohesiveness of the minority group, Growe, supra, at 41-42, and the latter showed no significant white bloc voting, Voinovich, supra, at 158. Here, on the contrary, the District Court found, and the State does not challenge, the presence of both these Gingles preconditions. The dispute in this litigation centers on two quite different questions: whether Hispanics are sufficiently numerous and geographically compact to be a majority in additional single-member districts, as required by the first Gingles factor; and whether, even with all three Gingles
7 See also 478 U. S., at 50, n. 16 (discussing vote dilution through gerry-mandering district lines). For earlier precedents recognizing that racial gerrymanders have played a central role in discrimination against minority groups, see Gomillion v. Lightfoot, 364 U. S. 339 (1960); Perkins v. Matthews, 400 U. S. 379 (1971); Connor v. Finch, 431 U. S. 407 (1977).
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