1002
Thomas, J., concurring in judgment
affirm, without opinion, the judgment of a three-judge district court we affirm the judgment but not necessarily the reasoning by which it was reached. An unexplicated summary affirmance settles the issues for the parties, and is not to be read as a renunciation by this Court of doctrines previously announced in our opinions after full argument." Fusari v. Steinberg, 419 U. S. 379, 391-392 (1975) (Burger, C. J., concurring) (footnote omitted). I would not read our summary affirmance of DeWitt to eviscerate the explicit holding of Adarand or to undermine the force of our discussion of Georgia's concessions in Miller.
In this suit, Texas readily admits that it intentionally created majority-minority districts and that those districts would not have existed but for its affirmative use of racial demographics. As the State concedes in its brief:
"Texas intentionally maintained [District] 18 as an African-American opportunity district and intentionally created [Districts] 29 and 30 as minority opportunity districts in order to comply voluntarily with its reasonable belief, based upon strong evidence, that it was required to do so by the Voting Rights Act, and because it desired to insure that minorities who have historically been excluded from the electoral process in Texas had a reasonable opportunity to elect candidates of their choice." Brief for State Appellants 25.
See also ante, at 959-961, 969-970 (reciting similar concessions by Texas). That is enough to require application of strict scrutiny in this suit.2 I am content to reaffirm our holding in Adarand that all racial classifications by government must be strictly scrutinized and, even in the
2 It is unnecessary to parse in detail the contours of each challenged district. See ante, at 965-976. I agree that the geographic evidence is itself sufficient to invoke strict scrutiny, but once the State directly conceded that it intentionally used racial classifications to create majority-minority districts, there was no need to rely on circumstantial evidence.
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