Holder v. Hall, 512 U.S. 874, 38 (1994)

Page:   Index   Previous  31  32  33  34  35  36  37  38  39  40  41  42  43  44  45  Next

Cite as: 512 U. S. 874 (1994)

Thomas, J., concurring in judgment

nized, geographic districting is not a requirement inherent in our political system. See, e. g., Davis v. Bandemer, 478 U. S. 109, 159 (1986) (O'Connor, J., concurring in judgment) ("Districting itself represents a middle ground between winner-take-all statewide elections and proportional representation for political parties"); id., at 160 (noting that our current practice of accepting district-based elections as a given is simply a "political judgment"). Rather, districting is merely another political choice made by the citizenry in the drafting of their state constitutions. Like other political choices concerning electoral systems and models of representation, it too is presumably subject to a judicial override if it comes into conflict with the theories of representation and effective voting that we may develop under the Voting Rights Act.

Indeed, the unvarnished truth is that all that is required for districting to fall out of favor is for Members of this Court to further develop their political thinking. We should not be surprised if voting rights advocates encourage us to "revive our political imagination," Guinier, 14 Cardozo L. Rev., at 1137, and to consider "innovative and nontraditional remedies" for vote dilution, Karlan 221, for under our Voting Rights Act jurisprudence, it is only the limits on our "political imagination" that place restraints on the standards we may select for defining undiluted voting systems. Once we candidly recognize that geographic districting and other aspects of electoral systems that we have so far placed beyond question are merely political choices, those practices, too,

liamentary reform in the last century. See generally T. Hare, Election of Representatives (4th ed. 1873); J. S. Mill, Considerations on Representative Government (1861). And while it is an oddity in American political history, cumulative voting in an at-large system has been employed in some American jurisdictions. See Weaver, Semi-Proportional and Proportional Representation Systems in the United States, in Choosing an Electoral System 191, 198 (A. Lijphart & B. Grofman eds. 1984); Hyneman & Morgan, Cumulative Voting in Illinois, 32 Ill. L. Rev. 12 (1937). See also Ill. Const., Art. IV, §§ 7, 8 (1870).

911

Page:   Index   Previous  31  32  33  34  35  36  37  38  39  40  41  42  43  44  45  Next

Last modified: October 4, 2007