1000
Thomas, J., concurring in judgment
tions must be strictly scrutinized.1 And in Miller v. Johnson, 515 U. S. 900 (1995), Georgia's concession that it intentionally created majority-minority districts was sufficient to show that race was a predominant, motivating factor in its redistricting. Id., at 918-919.
Strict scrutiny applies to all governmental classifications based on race, and we have expressly held that there is no exception for race-based redistricting. Id., at 913-915; Shaw I, supra, at 643-647. While we have recognized the evidentiary difficulty of proving that a redistricting plan is, in fact, a racial gerrymander, see Miller, supra, at 916-917; Shaw I, 509 U. S., at 646-647, we have never suggested that a racial gerrymander is subject to anything less than strict scrutiny. See id., at 646 ("The difficulty of proof, of course, does not mean that a racial gerrymander, once established, should receive less scrutiny under the Equal Protection Clause than other state legislation classifying citizens by race").
In Shaw I, we noted that proving a racial gerrymander "sometimes will not be difficult at all," ibid., and suggested that evidence of a highly irregular shape or disregard for traditional race-neutral districting principles could suffice to invoke strict scrutiny. We clarified in Miller that a plaintiff may rely on both circumstantial and direct evidence and said that a plaintiff "must prove that the legislature subordinated traditional race-neutral districting principles . . . to racial considerations." 515 U. S., at 916. The shape of Georgia's Eleventh District was itself "quite compelling" evidence of
1 In Adarand, we overruled Metro Broadcasting, Inc. v. FCC, 497 U. S. 547 (1990), and held that strict scrutiny applies to racial classifications by the Federal Government as well as to those by the States. For quite some time, however, we have consistently held that race-based classifications by the States must be strictly scrutinized. See, e. g., Richmond v. J. A. Croson Co., 488 U. S. 469, 493-494 (1989) (plurality opinion); id., at 520 (Scalia, J., concurring in judgment); Wygant v. Jackson Bd. of Ed., 476 U. S. 267, 273 (1986) (plurality opinion); id., at 285 (O'Connor, J., concurring in part and concurring in judgment).
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