Holder v. Hall, 512 U.S. 874, 89 (1994)

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962

HOLDER v. HALL

Opinion of Stevens, J.

pretation, leading this Court to conclude that Congress had ratified it. 429 U. S., at 574-577." Id., at 134-135.

If the 1970 and 1975 reenactments had left any doubt as to congressional intent, that doubt would be set aside by the 1982 amendments to § 2. Between 1975 and 1982, the Court continued to interpret the Voting Rights Act in the broad manner set out by Allen. See City of Rome v. United States, 446 U. S. 156 (1980); Dougherty County Bd. of Ed. v. White, 439 U. S. 32 (1978); United Jewish Organizations of Williamsburgh, Inc. v. Carey, 430 U. S. 144 (1977); Richmond v. United States, 422 U. S. 358 (1975). In Mobile v. Bolden, 446 U. S. 55 (1980), a plurality of this Court concluded that violations of both the Voting Rights Act and the Fifteenth Amendment required discriminatory purpose. The case involved a claim that at-large voting diluted minority voting strength. In his opinion for the plurality in Bolden, Justice Stewart expressly relied upon Gomillion v. Lightfoot's holding "that allegations of a racially motivated gerrymander of municipal boundaries stated a claim under the Fifteenth Amendment." 446 U. S., at 62; see also id., at 85-86 (Stevens, J., concurring in judgment). The only reason Gomillion did not control the outcome in Bolden was that an "invidious purpose" had been alleged in the earlier case but not in Bolden. 446 U. S., at 63.3 The congressional response to Bolden is familiar history. In the 1982 amendment to § 2 of the Voting Rights Act, Congress substituted a "results" test for an intent requirement. Pub. L. 97-205, § 3, 96 Stat. 134; see 42 U. S. C. § 1973. It is crystal

3 The idea that the Court in Bolden cast doubt on whether the Voting Rights Act reached diluting practices is flatly refuted by another decision handed down the very same day as the Bolden decision. In City of Rome v. United States, 446 U. S. 156, 186-187 (1980), the Court held that § 5 required preclearance of annexations potentially diluting minority voting strength. Even the dissenters did not suggest that vote dilution claims were now questionable.

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