Cite as: 512 U. S. 874 (1994)
Blackmun, J., dissenting
least as broad as "standard, practice, or procedure with respect to voting" under § 5. In fact, because of the "close connection" between §§ 2 and 5, we interpret them similarly. See Chisom v. Roemer, 501 U. S., at 402 (concluding that it would be "anomalous" to do otherwise). And in the context of § 2, the Court stated: "Section 2 protected the right to vote, and it did so without making any distinctions or imposing any limitations as to which elections would fall within its purview." Id., at 392. See also Houston Lawyers' Assn. v. Attorney General of Tex., 501 U. S. 419 (1991) (rejecting a "single-member-office" exception to § 2).
Congress repeatedly has endorsed the broad construction this Court has given the Act in general and § 5 in particular.1 Significantly, when Congress considered the 1982 amendments to the Voting Rights Act, it made no effort to curtail the application of § 5 to changes in size, in the face of the longstanding practice of submitting such changes for pre-clearance, and on the heels of this Court's recognition just two years earlier that it was "not disputed" that a change in the size of a governing body was covered under § 5. See City of Rome, 446 U. S., at 161. Similarly, the Attorney General, whose construction of the Act "is entitled to considerable deference," NAACP v. Hampton County Election Comm'n, 470 U. S., at 178-179, for years has required § 5 preclearance of the expansion or reduction of a governing
1 See Georgia v. United States, 411 U. S. 526, 533 (1973) ("After extensive deliberations in 1970 on bills to extend the Voting Rights Act, during which the Allen case was repeatedly discussed, the Act was extended for five years, without any substantive modification of § 5") (footnote omitted); Dougherty County Bd. of Ed. v. White, 439 U. S. 32, 39 (1978) ("Again in 1975, both the House and Senate Judiciary Committees, in recommending extension of the Act, noted with approval the 'broad interpretations to the scope of Section 5' in Allen and Perkins v. Matthews [400 U. S. 379 (1971)]"); NAACP v. Hampton County Election Comm'n, 470 U. S. 166, 176 (1985) (in the 1982 extension of the Act, "Congress specifically endorsed a broad construction" of § 5).
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