934
Stevens, J., dissenting
ing about whether it subordinated traditional districting principles in drawing District 12. States that conclude that federal law requires majority-minority districts have little choice but to give "overriding" weight to that concern. Indeed, in Voinovich v. Quilter, 507 U. S. 146, 159 (1993), we explained that evidence that showed that Ohio's chief mapmaker preferred "federal over state law when he believed the two in conflict does not raise an inference of intentional discrimination; it demonstrates obedience to the Supremacy Clause of the United States Constitution." For that reason, we have not previously held that concessions such as North Carolina's suffice to trigger strict scrutiny. Cf. Bush, post, at 958, 962.10 Thus, the State's concession is of little significance.
District 12's noncompact appearance also fails to show that North Carolina engaged in suspect race-based districting. There is no federal statutory or constitutional requirement that state electoral boundaries conform to any particular ideal of geographic compactness. In addition, although the North Carolina Constitution requires electoral districts for state elective office to be contiguous, it does not require them to be geographically compact.11 N. C. Const., Art. II,
subordinated race-neutral districting criteria in drawing District 1; it shows only that the need to comply with federal law was critical.
10 In DeWitt v. Wilson, 856 F. Supp. 1409 (ED Cal. 1994), for example, the State conceded that compliance with § 5 of the Voting Rights Act constituted the one unavoidable limitation on its redistricting process. Id., at 1410. Nevertheless, we affirmed the District Court's conclusion that strict scrutiny did not apply because the State gave significant weight to several race-neutral considerations in meeting that goal. Id., at 1415. Moreover, in Miller v. Johnson, 515 U. S. 900 (1995), the Court applied strict scrutiny only after it concluded that the State considered only race in adding African-American voters to District 11; it did not hold that Georgia's general admissions about its desire to comply with federal law themselves sufficed. Id., at 917-919.
11 The State Constitution sets forth no limitation on districting for federal offices. Moreover, the state-prepared 1991 Legislator's Guide to North Carolina Legislative and Congressional Redistricting points out
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