Shaw v. Hunt, 517 U.S. 899, 29 (1996)

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Cite as: 517 U. S. 899 (1996)

Stevens, J., dissenting

their district, or "stigmatic" harms, in the sense that the race-based line-drawing may promote racial hostility. United States v. Hays, 515 U. S., at 744-745; Shaw I, 509 U. S., at 646-649.

Even if I were to accept the flawed assumption that the

Hays test serves to identify any voter who has been burdened more than any other as a consequence of his race, I would still find it a most puzzling inquiry. What the Court fails to explain, as it failed to explain in Hays, is why evidence showing either that one lives in an allegedly racially gerrymandered district or that one's district assignment directly resulted from a racial classification should suffice to distinguish those who have suffered the representational and stigmatic harms that supposedly follow from race-based districting from those who have not.

If representational injuries are what one must show to secure standing under Hays, then a demonstration that a voter's race led to his assignment to a particular district would perhaps be relevant to the jurisdictional inquiry, but surely not sufficient to satisfy it. There is no necessary correlation between race-based districting assignments and inadequate representation. See Davis v. Bandemer, 478 U. S. 109, 132 (1986) (opinion of White, J.). Indeed, any assumption that such a correlation exists could only be based on a stereotypical assumption about the kind of representation that politicians elected by minority voters are capable of providing. See Miller v. Johnson, 515 U. S., at 930 (Stevens, J., dissenting).

To prove the representational harms that Hays holds are needed to establish standing to assert a Shaw claim, one would think that plaintiffs should be required to put forth evidence that demonstrates that their political representatives are actually unlikely to provide effective representation to those voters whose interests are not aligned with those of the majority race in their district. Here, as the record reveals, no plaintiff has made such a showing. See

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