252
Kennedy, J., dissenting
this for ordinary party processes. The White Primary Cases involved ever-increasing efforts on the part of the State itself to camouflage discrimination in the guise of party activity. See ante, at 211-213 (opinion of Stevens, J.). There is no claim in this case that the Commonwealth's statutory policy of allowing the Republican Party (and any other political party that receives at least 10 percent of the vote in either of two preceding elections) the option to nominate by primary or convention, Va. Code Ann. § 24.2-509 (1993), is void on account of the Commonwealth's failure to preclear that policy in accordance with the requirements of § 5. Rather, the argument embraced today is that the Party itself acted in violation of § 5 by failing to preclear the $45 registration fee. We would face a much different case if a State, without first seeking § 5 preclearance, restructured its election laws in order to allow political parties the opportunity to practice unlawful discrimination in the nominating process. If, as seems likely, such a change constituted a "voting qualification or prerequisite to voting, or standard, practice, or procedure with respect to voting different from that in force or effect on November 1, 1964," 42 U. S. C. § 1973c, § 5 would require preclearance by the State. For this reason, appellants' counsel overstated the matter by arguing that if Congress intended to reach only States qua States, and not political parties, "the Voting Rights Act would have been strangled at its birth." Tr. of Oral Arg. 12.
Although Congress enacted § 5 to counteract the notorious history of attempts to evade the guarantees of equal treatment in voting, South Carolina v. Katzenbach, 383 U. S. 301, 327-328 (1966), that history does not give us license to expand the Act's coverage beyond the boundaries of the statutory text, Presley v. Etowah County Comm'n, 502 U. S. 491, 509 (1992). I would adhere to that text, which reflects a decided intent on Congress' part to reach governmental, not private, entities. With respect, I dissent.
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