Cite as: 517 U. S. 186 (1996)
Thomas, J., dissenting
Justice Thomas, with whom The Chief Justice and Justice Scalia join, and with whom Justice Kennedy joins as to Part II, dissenting.
Two discrete questions of statutory interpretation control appellants' claim under § 5 of the Voting Rights Act: whether the Republican Party of Virginia is a "State or political subdivision" and, if so, whether the fee imposed upon its conventioneers constitutes a procedure "with respect to voting." 42 U. S. C. § 1973c. The plain meaning of the Voting Rights Act mandates a negative answer to both of these questions. The text of the Act also forecloses the availability of a private cause of action under § 10. I therefore dissent.
I
A
Section 5 declares that, "[w]henever a State or political subdivision . . . shall enact or seek to administer" any change with respect to voting, it may not institute that change absent preclearance. 42 U. S. C. § 1973c (emphasis added). Only when a "State or political subdivision" promulgates new voting rules is § 5 even arguably implicated. See United States v. Sheffield Bd. of Comm'rs, 435 U. S. 110, 141 (1978) (Stevens, J., dissenting) ("As a starting point, it is clear that [§ 5] applies only to actions taken by two types of political units—States or political subdivisions"). Thus, the first issue to be decided here is whether the Republican Party of Virginia is the type of entity that must comply with the preclearance requirement of § 5.
Justice Stevens does not directly address this threshold question of pure statutory interpretation. He begins with the Attorney General's regulation, rather than with the text of § 5 itself. Cf. Norfolk & Western R. Co. v. Train Dispatchers, 499 U. S. 117, 128 (1991) ("As always, we begin with the language of the statute and ask whether Congress has
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