928
Thomas, J., concurring in judgment
not become the deciding factor in assessing § 2 claims. But in doing so, § 2(b) removes from consideration the most logical ratio for assessing a claim of vote dilution. To resolve a dilution claim under § 2, therefore, a court either must arbitrarily select a different ratio to represent the "undiluted" norm, a ratio that would have less intuitive appeal than direct proportionality, or it must effectively apply a proportionality test in direct contravention of the text of the Act 25—hence the "inherent tension" between the text of the Act and vote dilution claims. Given that § 2 nowhere speaks in terms of "dilution," an explicit disclaimer removing from the field of play the most natural deciding principle in dilution cases is surely a strong signal that such claims do not fall within the ambit of the Act.26
25 As I discuss more fully below, our cases have pursued the latter option. See infra, at 936-944.
26 In Johnson v. De Grandy, post, p. 997, the Court suggests that § 2(b) disclaims only a guarantee of success for minority candidates and thus that it has nothing to say concerning remedial schemes designed to provide a minority group proportional control over seats. See post, at 1014, n. 11. See also post, at 1026-1027 (Kennedy, J., concurring in part and concurring in judgment). Minority control, of course, may or may not result in the election of minority candidates. The Court's reading of the disclaimer, in my view, distorts the obvious import of the provision. The clause rejecting a group's right to elect its own members in proportion to their numbers must be understood as a disclaimer of a minority group's right to proportional political power. Otherwise, in practical terms, the clause would be reduced to a nullity.
It should be clear that a system that gives a minority group proportional control effectively provides the "right" to elect a proportionate number of minority candidates that the Act disclaims. Whether that right is utilized by minority voters to elect minority candidates is a matter of the voters' choice. The De Grandy Court's position seems to be that the proviso is directed, not at a system intended to guarantee the ability to elect minority candidates in proportion to the minority's numbers, but only at a system that will invariably guarantee the election of a proportionate number of minority candidates. Only one system would fit that description: a system based on a racial register in which a quota of seats are set aside for members of a minority group. I think it would be preposterous
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