934
Ginsburg, J., dissenting
Justice Ginsburg, with whom Justice Stevens and Justice Breyer join, and with whom Justice Souter joins except as to Part III-B, dissenting.
Legislative districting is highly political business. This Court has generally respected the competence of state legislatures to attend to the task. When race is the issue, however, we have recognized the need for judicial intervention to prevent dilution of minority voting strength. Generations of rank discrimination against African-Americans, as citizens and voters, account for that surveillance.
Two Terms ago, in Shaw v. Reno, 509 U. S. 630 (1993), this Court took up a claim "analytically distinct" from a vote dilution claim. Id., at 652. Shaw authorized judicial intervention in "extremely irregular" apportionments, id., at 642, in which the legislature cast aside traditional districting practices to consider race alone—in the Shaw case, to create a district in North Carolina in which African-Americans would compose a majority of the voters.
Today the Court expands the judicial role, announcing that federal courts are to undertake searching review of any district with contours "predominant[ly] motivat[ed]" by race: "[S]trict scrutiny" will be triggered not only when traditional districting practices are abandoned, but also when those practices are "subordinated to"—given less weight than—race. See ante, at 916. Applying this new "race-as-predominant-factor" standard, the Court invalidates Georgia's districting plan even though Georgia's Eleventh District, the focus of today's dispute, bears the imprint of familiar districting practices. Because I do not endorse the Court's new standard and would not upset Georgia's plan, I dissent.
I
At the outset, it may be useful to note points on which the Court does not divide. First, we agree that federalism and the slim judicial competence to draw district lines weigh
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