Cite as: 517 U. S. 186 (1996)
Thomas, J., dissenting
B
Assuming, arguendo, that the Republican Party of Virginia is a "State" within either the ordinary or the constitutional sense of the word, the question remains whether the Party has sought to administer a practice or procedure with respect to "voting." Based on the statutory definition of "voting," I conclude that the registration fee is not the type of election-related change with which the Act concerns itself.
Section 14 of the Act defines voting as "all action necessary to make a vote effective in any primary, special, or general election, including, but not limited to . . . casting a ballot, and having such ballot counted properly and included in the appropriate totals of votes cast with respect to candidates for public or party office." 42 U. S. C. § 1973l(c)(1). There is no mention of conventions. Because § 14 specifically enumerates the types of elections covered, but does not
of that institution—might "wan[t] to enact" never become law. We must look to the extant text of the statute and see what Congress has in fact, and not in theory, enacted.
In contrast to Justice Breyer's imaginary statute, which covers all actors that might discriminate in the electoral process, § 5 is in reality limited to States and political subdivisions. Thus, the question in this case is not whether we should "read this Act as excluding all political party activity . . . [and] ope[n] a loophole in the statute," ante, at 235, but whether we should read § 5 to include such activity in the first place. If there is any "loophole" in § 5 here, it results from the fact that Congress simply did not cover political parties in the preclearance provision. Justice Breyer's argument thus boils down to the curious notion that when Congress passes a statute that covers certain actors, it thereby establishes a "loophole" for all others. Moreover, while Congress was surely aware of the history of discrimination in the political process when it passed the Act, I presume it was also cognizant of the prohibitions of the First Amendment, see infra, at 282-285, as well as the constraints on its legislative powers under the Fifteenth Amendment, not the least of which is the state-action requirement. See n. 14, supra. Both of these constitutional limits on Congress' powers are sufficient reason to curb speculation and to think it "possible" (if the lack of textual evidence were not enough) that Congress did not intend to cover political parties under § 5.
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