256
Thomas, J., dissenting
connote geographic territories, not political parties. See 42 U. S. C. § 1973aa-1(h) (defining, for purposes of § 202 of the Extension Act, "[t]he term 'State' " as "each of the several States and the District of Columbia").
A State, of course, cannot "enact or seek to administer" laws without resort to its governmental units. § 1973c. A State necessarily operates through its legislative, executive, and judicial bodies. When the legislature passes a law, or an administrative agency issues a policy directive, official action has unquestionably been taken in the name of the State. Accordingly, voting changes administered by such entities have been governed consistently by § 5. See, e. g., Allen v. State Bd. of Elections, 393 U. S. 544 (1969) (requiring pre-clearance of amendments to Mississippi Code enacted by state legislature and bulletin distributed by Virginia Board of Elections). See also United States v. Saint Landry Parish School Bd., 601 F. 2d 859, 864, n. 8 (CA5 1979) ("The cases uniformly speak of § 5 as applying to 'enactments,' 'legislation,' 'regulations,' and 'laws'—all actions taken by the governmental authority of state"). Unlike the Virginia General Assembly, however, the Republican Party of Virginia is not an organ of the State through which the State must conduct its affairs, and the Party has no authority to formulate state law. The Party's promulgations thus cannot be within § 5's reach of "any state enactment which alter[s] the election law of a covered State." Allen v. State Bd. of Elections, supra, at 566 (quoted ante, at 204).
Although Justice Stevens points to past preclearance submissions as evidence that § 5 covers political parties, ante, at 200-201, n. 18, those submissions are largely irrelevant to the meaning of § 5. It should come as no surprise that once the Attorney General promulgated a regulation expressly covering political parties, 28 CFR § 51.7 (effective Jan. 5, 1981), some of those organizations requested preclearance and the Justice Department processed their requests. Tell-ingly, Justice Stevens is able to cite only a handful of party
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