Cite as: 517 U. S. 899 (1996)
Stevens, J., dissenting
Moreover, the record reveals that District 12's lines were drawn in order to unite an African-American community whose political tradition was quite distinct from the one that defines African-American voters in the Coastal Plain, which District 1 surrounds. Ibid. Indeed, two other majority-minority-district plans with less torturous boundaries were thought unsatisfactory precisely because they did not unite communities of interest. 861 F. Supp., at 465-466; Tr. 481. Significantly, the irregular contours of District 12 track the State's main interstate highway and are located entirely within the culturally distinct Piedmont Crescent region. 861 F. Supp., at 466. Clearly, then, District 12 was drawn around a community "defined by actual shared interests" rather than racial demography. Miller v. Johnson, 515 U. S., at 916; see also Shaw I, 509 U. S., at 647-648; DeWitt v. Wilson, 856 F. Supp., at 1412, 1413-1414 (recognizing that districts were "functionally" compact because they surrounded "communit[ies] of interest").
In light of the majority's decision not to remand for proper application of the Miller test, I do not understand how it can condemn the drawing of District 12 given these two race-neutral justifications for its shape. To be sure, in choosing a district that snakes rather than sits, North Carolina did not put a premium on geographical compactness. But I do not understand why that should matter in light of the evidence that shows that other race-neutral districting considerations were determinative.16
16 Although the majority asserts that North Carolina "subordinated" traditional districting principles to racial concerns because "[r]ace was the criterion that, in the State's view, could not be compromised," ante, at 907, no evidence suggests that North Carolina would have sacrificed traditional districting principles in order to draw a second majority-minority district. Rather, the record reveals that the State chose District 12 over other options so that its plan would remain faithful to traditional, race-neutral districting criteria. If strict scrutiny applies even when a State draws a majority-minority district that respects traditional district-
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