980
Opinion of O'Connor, J.
Brief for Appellants Lawson et al. 56. They rely on our statement in Miller:
"Shape is relevant not because bizarreness is a necessary element of the constitutional wrong or a threshold requirement of proof, but because it may be persuasive circumstantial evidence that race for its own sake, and not other districting principles, was the legislature's dominant and controlling rationale in drawing its district lines." 515 U. S., at 913.
The United States takes a more moderate position, accepting that in the context of narrow tailoring, "consideration must be given to the extent to which the districts drawn by a State substantially depart from its customary redistricting practices," Brief for United States 36, but asserting that insofar as bizarreness and noncompactness are necessary to achieve the State's compelling interest in compliance with § 2 "while simultaneously achieving other legitimate redistricting goals," id., at 37, such as incumbency protection, the narrowly tailoring requirement is satisfied. Similarly, Justice Stevens' dissent argues that "noncompact districts should . . . be a permissible method of avoiding violations of [§ 2]." Post, at 1034.
These arguments cannot save the districts before us. The Lawson appellants misinterpret Miller: District shape is not irrelevant to the narrow tailoring inquiry. Our discussion in Miller served only to emphasize that the ultimate constitutional values at stake involve the harms caused by the use of unjustified racial classifications, and that bizarreness is not necessary to trigger strict scrutiny. See Miller, 515 U. S., at 912-913. Significant deviations from traditional districting principles, such as the bizarre shape and noncompactness demonstrated by the districts here, cause constitutional harm insofar as they convey the message that political identity is, or should be, predominantly racial. For example, the bizarre shaping of Districts 18 and 29, cutting across pre-
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