944
Stevens, J., dissenting
In the course of the redistricting debate, numerous maps had been presented showing that blacks could constitute more than 50 percent of the population in two districts. 861 F. Supp., at 460-461, 474. The District Court found that these plans had demonstrated that "the state's African-American population was sufficiently large and geographically compact to constitute a majority in two congressional districts." Id., at 464.
Moreover, the Attorney General denied preclearance on the ground that North Carolina could have created a second majority-minority district that was, under any reasonable standard, geographically compact. Id., at 461-462; Shaw I, 509 U. S., at 635. Maps prepared by the plaintiff-intervenors for this litigation conclusively demonstrate that two compact, majority-minority districts could indeed have been drawn. 861 F. Supp., at 464-465; Plaintiff-Intervenors' Exh. 301, A2-A3.
Even if many of the maps proposing two majority-African-American districts were not particularly compact, the legislature reasonably concluded that a federal court might have determined that some of them could have provided the basis for a viable vote dilution suit pursuant to Thornburg v. Gingles, 478 U. S., at 50-51. 861 F. Supp., at 474. That conclusion is particularly reasonable in light of the fact that Gingles was a case fresh in the minds of many of North Carolina's state legislators, id., at 463. There, the State challenged the plaintiffs' § 2 claim by pointing to the oddly configured lines that defined their proposed majority-minority districts. See Gingles v. Edmisten, 590 F. Supp. 345, 373 (EDNC 1984). As we know, North Carolina's defense to § 2 liability proved unsuccessful in that instance, even though the District Court acknowledged that the "single-member district specifically suggested by the plain-that it would otherwise be subject to a successful § 2 challenge, not a "meritless" one. Ibid.
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