Cite as: 517 U. S. 952 (1996)
Stevens, J., dissenting
district encompassing all of South Dallas. See App. 139; 861 F. Supp., at 1321, n. 22. Representatives Bryant and Frost objected, however, because the proposed district included not only Johnson's residence, but their own homes, located within only 10 miles of each other on opposite sides of the city. Furthermore, Johnson's plan transferred many of Frost and Bryant's most reliable Democratic supporters into the proposed district. Rather than acquiesce to the creation of this compact majority-minority district, Frost and Bryant insisted that the new district avoid both their own homes and many of the communities that had been loyal to them. Johnson's plan was, therefore, "quickly abandoned." Ibid.
To accommodate the incumbents' desires, District 30 required geographical adjustments that had telling effects on its shape. First, two notches carefully avoiding the residences of and neighborhoods surrounding Frost and Bryant were carved out of District 30's side. See Appendix D, infra.11 Furthermore, Frost and Bryant retained several communities—many majority-black—along the southern and eastern sides of the proposed district. See generally 861 F. Supp., at 1321-1322.12
11 This phenomenon is not unique to Dallas County: Throughout the State, "incumbent residences repeatedly fall just along district lines." 861 F. Supp., at 1318 (giving examples); see State's Exhs. 10A and 10B (showing incumbent residences). District 6, for instance, changed from a rural district stretching far to the southeast of Dallas to a more suburban district wrapping around Fort Worth. As it did so, however, the district pivoted around the home of incumbent Representative Joe Barton, whose residence sits at the extreme southeastern end of a district stretching in a 100-mile-long loop around Fort Worth. See Appendix D, infra.
12 The plurality suggests that these communities were shed from District 30 in a "suspect use of race as a proxy to further neighboring incumbents' interests." Ante, at 979; see also ante, at 971-972, n. I had thought, however, that the Court's concern in these cases was the "resemblance to political apartheid" involved in the creation of majority-minority districts. Shaw I, 509 U. S. 630, 647 (1993). I do not see how the decision to include minority communities in a neighboring majority-white district bears any resemblance to such "apartheid" or, for that matter, how it has any rele-
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