Cite as: 515 U. S. 900 (1995)
Opinion of the Court
policy, see Brief for United States 35, and seems to concede its impropriety, see Tr. of Oral Arg. 32-33, the District Court's well-documented factual finding was that the Department did adopt a maximization policy and followed it in objecting to Georgia's first two plans.* One of the two Department of Justice line attorneys overseeing the Georgia preclearance process himself disclosed that " 'what we did and what I did specifically was to take a . . . map of the State of Georgia shaded for race, shaded by minority concentration, and overlay the districts that were drawn by the State of Georgia and see how well those lines adequately reflected black voting strength.' " 864 F. Supp., at 1362, n. 4. In utilizing § 5 to require States to create majority-minority districts wherever possible, the Department of Justice expanded its authority under the statute beyond what Congress intended and we have upheld.
Section 5 was directed at preventing a particular set of invidious practices that had the effect of "undo[ing] or defeat[ing] the rights recently won by nonwhite voters."
*See 864 F. Supp. 1354, 1361 (SD Ga. 1994) (quoting Rep. Tyrone Brooks, who recalled on the Assembly Floor that " 'the Attorney General . . . specifically told the states covered by the Act that wherever possible, you must draw majority black districts, wherever possible' "); id., at 1362-1363, and n. 4 (citing 3 Tr. 23-24: Assistant Attorney General answering "Yes" to question whether "the Justice Department did take the position in a number of these cases, that if alternative plans demonstrated that more minority districts could be drawn than the state was proposing to draw . . . that did, in fact, violate Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act?"); 864 F. Supp., at 1365-1366; id., at 1366, n. 11 ("It became obvious that [the Justice Department] would accept nothing less than abject surrender to its maximization agenda"); id., at 1368 ("It apparently did not occur to [the Justice Department] that increased 'recognition' of minority voting strength, while perhaps admirable, is properly tempered with other districting considerations"); id., at 1382-1383 (expressing doubts as to the constitutionality of [the Justice Department's] " 'maximization' policy"); id., at 1383, n. 35 (citing other courts that have "criticize[d] [the Justice Department's] maximization propensities").
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