Bush v. Vera, 517 U.S. 952, 6 (1996)

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Cite as: 517 U. S. 952 (1996)

Stevens, J., dissenting

force my conviction that the Court has, with its "analytically distinct" jurisprudence of racial gerrymandering, Shaw v. Reno, 509 U. S. 630, 652 (1993) (Shaw I), struck out into a jurisprudential wilderness that lacks a definable constitutional core and threatens to create harms more significant than any suffered by the individual plaintiffs challenging these districts. See Parts VI-VII, infra; Shaw v. Hunt, ante, at 918-919 (Shaw II) (Stevens, J., dissenting). Though we travel ever farther from it with each passing decision, I would return to the well-traveled path that we left in Shaw I.

I

The factors motivating Texas' redistricting plan are clearly revealed in the results of the 1992 elections. Both before and immediately after the 1990 census, the Democratic Party was in control of the Texas Legislature. Under the new map in 1992, more than two-thirds of the Districts—including each of the new ones—elected Democrats, even though Texas voters are arguably more likely to vote Republican than Democrat.3 Incumbents of both parties were just as successful: 26 of the 27 incumbents were reelected, while each of the three new districts elected a state legislator who had essentially acted as an incumbent in the districting process,4 giving "incumbents" a 97% success rate.

3 In elections since 1980, the State has elected a Democrat in only two of four gubernatorial races, and in only two of six races for the United States Senate. America Votes 21: A Handbook of Contemporary American Election Statistics 417 (R. Scammon & A. McGillivray eds. 1995). Furthermore, in 1994, Republican candidates received a total of 550,000 more votes than Democratic candidates in Texas' 30 races for the United States House of Representatives, id., at 4, while in 1992, Democratic House candidates outpolled Republicans by only 147,000 votes (despite winning 27 of 30 districts). America Votes 20: A Handbook of Contemporary American Election Statistics 474 (R. Scammon & A. McGillivray eds. 1993).

4 Then-State Senator from Dallas, Eddie Bernice Johnson, who was chair of the Senate Subcommittee on Congressional Districts, maneuvered to construct District 30 in a manner that would ensure her election. 861

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