930
Stevens, J., dissenting
the District Court, which possesses an obvious familiarity with the record and a superior understanding of local dynamics,6 to make the fact-intensive inquiry into legislative purpose that the proper test for triggering strict scrutiny requires. Although I do not share the majority's willingness to divine on my own the degree to which race determined the precise contours of District 12, if forced to decide the matter on this record, I would reject the majority's conclusion that a fair application of precedent dictates that North Carolina's redistricting effort should be subject to strict scrutiny.
Subsequent to the District Court's decision, we handed down Miller v. Johnson, 515 U. S. 900 (1995), and issued our summary affirmance in DeWitt v. Wilson, 515 U. S. 1170 (1995). As I understand the Miller test, and as it was applied in DeWitt, state legislatures may take racial and ethnic characteristics of voters into account when they are drawing district boundaries without triggering strict scrutiny so long as race is not the "predominant" consideration guiding their deliberations. Miller v. Johnson, 515 U. S., at 916. To show that race has been "predominant," a plaintiff must show that "the legislature subordinated traditional race-neutral districting principles . . . to racial considerations" in drawing that district. Ibid.; see also id., at 928 (O'Connor, J., concurring) ("To invoke strict scrutiny, a plaintiff must show that the State has relied on race in substantial disregard of customary and traditional districting practices"); DeWitt v. Wilson, 856 F. Supp. 1409, 1412 (ED Cal. 1994), aff'd in part, dism'd in part, 515 U. S. 1170 (1995) (declining to apply strict scrutiny because State complied with traditional districting principles).
6 That is particularly true here because the author of the District Court opinion was also the author of the District Court opinion in Gingles v. Edmisten, 590 F. Supp. 345 (EDNC 1984), aff'd in part, rev'd in part, Thornburg v. Gingles, 478 U. S. 30 (1986).
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