946
Ginsburg, J., dissenting
See ante, at 911-912.11 The controlling idea, the Court says, is " 'the simple command [at the heart of the Constitution's guarantee of equal protection] that the Government must treat citizens as individuals, not as simply components of a racial, religious, sexual or national class.' " See ante, at 911 (quoting Metro Broadcasting, Inc. v. FCC, 497 U. S. 547, 602 (1990) (O'Connor, J., dissenting)) (some internal quotation marks omitted). But cf. Strauder v. West Virginia, 100 U. S. 303, 307 (1880) (pervading purpose of post-Civil War Amendments was to bar discrimination against once-enslaved race).
11 I would follow precedent directly on point. In United Jewish Organizations of Williamsburgh, Inc. v. Carey, 430 U. S. 144 (1977) (UJO), even though the State "deliberately used race in a purposeful manner" to create majority-minority districts, id., at 165 (opinion of White, J., joined by Rehnquist and Stevens, JJ.), seven of eight Justices participating voted to uphold the State's plan without subjecting it to strict scrutiny. Five Justices specifically agreed that the intentional creation of majority-minority districts does not give rise to an equal protection claim, absent proof that the districting diluted the majority's voting strength. See ibid. (opinion of White, J., joined by Rehnquist and Stevens, JJ.); id., at 179- 180 (Stewart, J., concurring in judgment, joined by Powell, J.).
Nor is UJO best understood as a vote dilution case. Petitioners' claim in UJO was that the State had "violated the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments by deliberately revising its reapportionment plan along racial lines." Id., at 155 (opinion of White, J., joined by Brennan, Blackmun, and Stevens, JJ.) (emphasis added). Petitioners themselves stated: " 'Our argument is . . . that the history of the area demonstrates that there could be—and in fact was—no reason other than race to divide the community at this time.' " Id., at 154, n. 14 (quoting Brief for Petitioners, O. T. 1976, No. 75-104, p. 6, n. 6) (emphasis in Brief for Petitioners). Though much like the claim in Shaw, the UJO claim failed because the
UJO district adhered to traditional districting practices. See 430 U. S., at 168 (opinion of White, J., joined by Rehnquist and Stevens, JJ.) ("[W]e think it . . . permissible for a State, employing sound districting principles such as compactness and population equality, . . . [to] creat[e] districts that will afford fair representation to the members of those racial groups who are sufficiently numerous and whose residential patterns afford the opportunity of creating districts in which they will be in the majority.") (emphasis added).
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