738
Opinion of the Court
O'Connor, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which Rehnquist, C. J., and Scalia, Kennedy, Souter, Thomas, and Breyer, JJ., joined. Breyer, J., filed a concurring opinion, in which Souter, J., joined, post, p. 750. Stevens, J., filed an opinion concurring in the judgment, post, p. 750. Ginsburg, J., concurred in the judgment.
Richard P. Ieyoub, Jr., Attorney General of Louisiana, argued the cause for the state appellants. With him on the briefs were Roy A. Mongrue, Jr., and Angie Rogers LaPlace, Assistant Attorneys General, and Paul R. Baier. Solicitor General Days argued the cause for the United States. With him on the briefs were Assistant Attorney General Patrick, Deputy Solicitor General Bender, Irving L. Gornstein, Jessica Dunsay Silver, and Mark L. Gross. Edward W. Warren argued the cause for appellees. With
him on the brief were Christopher Landau and Jay P. Lefkowitz.†
Justice O'Connor delivered the opinion of the Court. We held in Shaw v. Reno, 509 U. S. 630 (1993), that a plaintiff may state a claim for relief under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment by alleging that a State "adopted a reapportionment scheme so irrational on its face that it can be understood only as an effort to segregate voters into separate voting districts because of their race,
†Briefs of amici curiae urging reversal were filed for the American Civil Liberties Union et al. by Laughlin McDonald, Neil Bradley, and Steven R. Shapiro; for the Congressional Black Caucus by A. Leon Higginbotham, Jr., and Pamela S. Karlan; for the National Bar Association et al. by Koteles Alexander and Brian J. Murphy; and for Bernadine St. Cyr et al. by Elaine R. Jones, Theodore M. Shaw, Norman J. Chachkin, Charles Stephen Ralston, Jacqueline A. Berrien, Thomas J. Henderson, Brenda Wright, J. Gerald Hebert, and Robert B. McDuff.
Briefs of amici curiae urging affirmance were filed for the Pacific Legal Foundation by Anthony T. Caso and Deborah J. La Fetra; for the South Carolina Senate et al. by Mark A. Packman and Benjamin E. Griffith; and for Ruth O. Shaw et al. by Robinson O. Everett and Clifford Dougherty.
William H. Mellor III filed a brief for the Institute for Justice as amicus curiae.
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