940
Stevens, J., dissenting
III
As the foregoing discussion illustrates, legislative decisions are often the product of compromise and mixed motives. For that reason, I have always been skeptical about the value of motivational analysis as a basis for constitutional adjudication. See, e. g., Washington v. Davis, 426 U. S. 229, 253-254 (1976) (Stevens, J., concurring). I am particularly skeptical of such an inquiry in a case of this type, as mixed motivations would seem to be endemic to the endeavor of political districting. See, e. g, Bush, post, at 959 ("The present suit is a mixed motive case").
The majority's analysis of the "compelling interest" issue nicely demonstrates the problem with parsing legislative motive in this context. The majority posits that the legislature's compelling interest in drawing District 12 was its desire to avoid liability under § 2 of the Voting Rights Act. Yet it addresses the question whether North Carolina had a compelling interest only because it first concludes that a racial purpose dominated the State's districting effort.
It seems to me that if the State's true purpose were to serve its compelling interest in staving off costly litigation by complying with federal law, then it cannot be correct to say that a racially discriminatory purpose controlled its line-drawing. A more accurate conclusion would be that the State took race into account only to the extent necessary to meet the requirements of a carefully thought out federal statute. See Voinovich v. Quilter, 507 U. S., at 159. The majority's implicit equation of the intentional consideration
ing principles, then I do not see how a State can ever create a majority-minority district in order to fulfill its obligations under the Voting Rights Act without inviting constitutional suspicion. I had thought that the "demanding" standard Miller established, Miller v. Johnson, 515 U. S., at 928 (O'Connor, J., concurring), as well as our summary affirmance in DeWitt, reflected our determination that States should not be so constrained.
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