Cite as: 517 U. S. 186 (1996)
Kennedy, J., dissenting
Follette, 450 U. S. 107, 122 (1981). These concerns would provide a sound basis for construing an ambiguous reference to the term "State" to avoid constitutional difficulties. See Miller v. Johnson, 515 U. S. 900, 924-928 (1995) (refusing to defer to Attorney General's interpretation of § 5 that raised equal protection concerns). Cf. Gregory v. Ashcroft, 501 U. S. 452, 460-464 (1991) (adopting plain statement rule with respect to statutory ambiguity that implicates Tenth Amendment concerns). Given the absence of any ambiguity in the statutory text before us, there is no basis for a grasping and implausible construction of the Act that brings these constitutional problems to the fore.
We are well advised to remember that Congress, too, can contribute in drawing the fine distinctions required in the balancing of associational and participatory rights. Cf. United States v. Lopez, 514 U. S. 549, 577 (1995) (Kennedy, J., concurring) ("[I]t would be mistaken and mischievous for the political branches to forget that the sworn obligation to preserve and protect the Constitution in maintaining the federal balance is their own in the first and primary instance"). No such fine distinctions were attempted, I would submit, in this statute; if anything "strains credulity," ante, at 217 (opinion of Stevens, J.), it is that Congress meant to include the Democratic and Republican Parties when it used the simple word "State" in the Voting Rights Act.
The opinions supporting the judgment express concern that cases like Smith and Terry would not be covered by the Voting Rights Act were the interpretation adopted today to be rejected. To begin with, of course, we should note that the Voting Rights Act was not needed to invalidate the discrimination that occurred in those cases. The Constitution of its own force did that. What we confront here, instead, is a statutory scheme in which entities seeking preclearance must ask a political officer (the Attorney General of the United States) for permission to change various internal procedures. It is a far reach to suppose that Congress required
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