Holder v. Hall, 512 U.S. 874, 70 (1994)

Page:   Index   Previous  63  64  65  66  67  68  69  70  71  72  73  74  75  76  77  Next

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

Thomas, J., concurring in judgment

ensure the group "equal" "political effectiveness." Thus, deliberately drawing districts so as to give, under the assumptions of the hypothetical, 40% of the population control over 50% of the seats, while leaving 60% of the population with control of a similar 50% of the seats, would seem to us unfair. Greater deviations from proportionality may appear more patently "absurd" than lesser, but the dividing line between what seems fair and what does not remains the same. The driving principle is proportionality.30

Few words would be too strong to describe the dissembling that pervades the application of the "totality of circumstances" test under our interpretation of § 2. It is an empty incantation—a mere conjurer's trick that serves to hide the

30 Of course, throughout this discussion concerning the Court's inevitable resort to proportionality, I have assumed that effective votes will be measured in terms of control of seats. See n. 29, supra. As Justice O'Connor suggests in her opinion in De Grandy, if we were to measure the effectiveness of votes not simply in terms of numbers of seats, but in terms of some more amorphous concept of "access to the political process," there would be no need to make proportionality "dispositive." See De Grandy, post, at 1026 (O'Connor, J., concurring). Cf. White, 412 U. S., at 765-766. But Gingles made control of seats the determining factor in dilution claims; that is the measure that has been applied in cases under Gingles, and it remains the measure applied in practice in the cases handed down today. In my view, it is unrealistic to think that the Court will now reverse course and establish some broader understanding of "political effectiveness" under the "totality of circumstances" test, after it consistently has pursued a measure of effective voting that makes electoral results the "linchpin" of dilution claims. See 478 U. S., at 93 (O'Connor, J., concurring in judgment).

Indeed, any change in course is made more unlikely by one very practical consideration. As the Court's decision in De Grandy perhaps suggests, measuring political effectiveness by any method other than counting numbers of seats can rapidly become a wholly unmanageable task. As I suggested above, see n. 6, supra, one of the reasons the Court seized upon control of seats as a measure of effective political participation is simply that control of seats provides the "most easily measured indicia of political power." Bandemer, 478 U. S., at 157 (O'Connor, J., concurring in judgment).

943

Page:   Index   Previous  63  64  65  66  67  68  69  70  71  72  73  74  75  76  77  Next

Last modified: October 4, 2007