Cite as: 517 U. S. 952 (1996)
Opinion of O'Connor, J.
Appellants contend that creation of each of the three majority-minority districts at issue was justified by Texas' compelling state interest in complying with this results test.
As we have done in each of our previous cases in which this argument has been raised as a defense to charges of racial gerrymandering, we assume without deciding that compliance with the results test, as interpreted by our precedents, see, e. g., Growe v. Emison, 507 U. S. 25, 37-42 (1993), can be a compelling state interest. See Shaw II, ante, at 915; Miller, 515 U. S., at 920-921. We also reaffirm that the "narrow tailoring" requirement of strict scrutiny allows the States a limited degree of leeway in furthering such interests. If the State has a "strong basis in evidence," Shaw I, 509 U. S., at 656 (internal quotation marks omitted), for concluding that creation of a majority-minority district is reasonably necessary to comply with § 2, and the districting that is based on race "substantially addresses the § 2 violation," Shaw II, ante, at 918, it satisfies strict scrutiny. We thus reject, as impossibly stringent, the District Court's view of the narrow tailoring requirement, that "a district must have the least possible amount of irregularity in shape, making allowances for traditional districting criteria." 861 F. Supp., at 1343. Cf. Wygant v. Jackson Bd. of Ed., 476 U. S. 267, 291 (1986) (O'Connor, J., concurring in part and concurring in judgment) (state actors should not be "trapped between the competing hazards of liability" by the imposition of unattainable requirements under the rubric of strict scrutiny).
A § 2 district that is reasonably compact and regular, taking into account traditional districting principles such as maintaining communities of interest and traditional boundaries, may pass strict scrutiny without having to defeat rival compact districts designed by plaintiffs' experts in endless "beauty contests." The dissenters misread us when they make the leap from our disagreement about the facts of this
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