Cite as: 517 U. S. 952 (1996)
Stevens, J., dissenting
The political, rather than the racial, nature of District 30's gerrymander is even more starkly highlighted by comparing it with the districts struck down in Shaw II and Miller. District 30's black population is, for instance, far more concentrated than the minority population in North Carolina's District 12. And in Miller, the Court made it clear that the odd shape of Georgia's Eleventh District was the result of a conscious effort to increase its proportion of minority populations: It was, the Court found, " 'exceedingly obvious' from the shape of the Eleventh District, together with the racial demographics, that the drawing of narrow land bridges to incorporate within the district outlying appendages containing nearly 80% of the district's total black population was a deliberate attempt to bring black populations into the district." Miller, 515 U. S., at 917 (emphasis added; citation omitted).
District 30 is the precise demographic converse of the district struck down in Miller. District 30, for example, has a compact core in South Dallas which contains 50% of the district population and nearly 70% of the district's total black population. Cf. ibid. Unlike the appendages to Georgia's District 11, the tentacles stretching north and west
cific sections of the district.) The more telling maps are the census block maps, which demonstrate that the Collin County section of District 30 contains many more census blocks of less than 25% minority population than it does blocks that are more than 50% minority. See State's Exhs. 45 and 46 (Exh. 45 is reproduced, in part, as Appendix D, infra). Even if those majority-white blocks have relatively small populations, they were nonetheless included, suggesting that the creation of the district was not as single-mindedly focused on race as the Court and the District Court assume.
Even more significant is the fact that the new precinct leaned overwhelmingly Democratic in the 1992 election, while the portion of the precinct that was not included in District 30 voted overwhelmingly Republican. See State's Exh. 9B (Collin County). While the excluded portion of the 1990 precinct may have been dropped, in part, to help comply with the State's goals under the Voting Rights Act, it also involved a successful effort to maximize Democratic votes while avoiding Republican votes.
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