Cite as: 517 U. S. 952 (1996)
Stevens, J., dissenting
V
The Houston districts present a closer question on the application of strict scrutiny. There is evidence that many of the same race-neutral factors motivating the zigzags of District 30 were present at the creation (or recreation) of Districts 29 and 18. In contrast to District 30, however, there is also evidence that the interlocking shapes of the Houston districts were specifically, and almost exclusively, the result of an effort to create, out of largely integrated communities, both a majority-black and a majority-Hispanic district. For purposes of this opinion, then, I am willing to accept, arguendo, the plurality's conclusion that the Houston districts should be examined with strict scrutiny.31 Even so, the plurality errs by concluding that these districts would fail that test.
The plurality begins with the perfectly obvious assumptions that a State has a compelling interest in complying with § 2 of the Voting Rights Act and that Texas had a strong basis for believing that it would have violated that Act in 1991 if it did not create three new majority-minority districts.32 The plurality goes on to conclude, however, that because the final shape of these districts is not coextensive with the community that would form the core of a § 2 violation, these districts would not be "narrowly tailored" to further that state interest. Ante, at 979. I respectfully disagree.
Neither evidence nor insinuation suggests that the State in the redistricting process considered race for any reason
31 Although I conclude that no reasonable interpretation of the record would require the application of strict scrutiny to District 30, I believe for the reasons that follow that it, too, would survive strict scrutiny if it were to be subject to that level of review.
32 While I believe that the evidence supporting the State's conclusions in this regard is stronger than that suggested by the plurality or Justice Kennedy in his concurring opinion, I will simply assume, arguendo, as the plurality does, that the State had a reasonable fear of liability under § 2. See also supra, at 1007.
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