Cite as: 515 U. S. 70 (1995)
Souter, J., dissenting
judicial decree restructuring the operation of local governmental entities that were not implicated in any constitutional violation." Id., at 296 (footnote omitted).
In the face of Gautreaux's language, the Court claims that it was only because the " 'relevant geographic area for purposes of the [plaintiffs'] housing options [was] the Chicago housing market, not the Chicago city limits,' " ante, at 97, quoting Gautreaux, supra, at 299, that we held that " 'a metropolitan area remedy . . . [was] not impermissible as a matter of law,' " ante, at 97, quoting Gautreaux, supra, at 306. See also ante, at 106 (O'Connor, J., concurring). But that was only half the explanation. Requiring a remedy outside the city in the wider metropolitan area was permissible not only because that was the area of the housing market even for people who lived within the city (thus relating the scope of the remedy to the violation suffered by the victims) but also because the trial court could order a remedy in that market without binding a governmental unit innocent of the violation and free of its effects. In "reject[ing] the contention that, since HUD's constitutional and statutory violations were committed in Chicago, Milliken precludes an order against HUD that will affect its conduct in the greater metropolitan area," we stated plainly that "[t]he critical distinction between HUD and the suburban school districts in Milliken is that HUD has been found to have violated the Constitution. That violation provided the necessary predicate for the entry of a remedial order against HUD and, indeed, imposed a duty on the District Court to grant appropriate relief." Gautreaux, 425 U. S., at 297. Having found HUD in violation of the Constitution, the District Court was obligated to make "every effort . . . to employ those methods [necessary] 'to achieve the greatest possible degree of [relief], taking into account the practicalities of the situation,' " ibid., quoting Davis v. Board of School Comm'rs of Mobile Cty., 402 U. S. 33, 37 (1971), and the District Court's methods could include subjecting HUD to measures going beyond the
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