104
Breyer, J., dissenting
. . . a district court should similarly honor state policies in the context of congressional reapportionment.' " Id., at 41 (quoting White v. Weiser, 412 U. S. 783, 794-795 (1973)).
The majority here, referring to this language, agrees:
"[A] court, as a general rule, should be guided by the legislative policies underlying the existing plan, to the extent those policies do not lead to violations of the Constitution or the Voting Rights Act." Ante, at 79 (citing Upham, supra, at 43).
It is therefore common ground among us that the District Court should have drawn boundaries so as to leave two majority-minority districts rather than one—unless there was no such state policy or preference; unless the creation of two such districts would have violated the Constitution or the Voting Rights Act of 1965; or unless doing so simply would have proved impractical in light of other important districting objectives. See Upham, supra, at 41-42 (quoting White, supra, at 794-795). Unlike the majority, I cannot find present here any of these three countervailing justifications.
A
No one denies that, if one looks at the redistricting plans proposed by the Georgia Legislature, one will find in them expressions of state " 'policies and preferences' " for two majority-minority districts. 456 U. S., at 41; see also Appendix to this opinion (Appendix), 1991 Plan, infra. After the 1990 Census, which increased the size of Georgia's congressional delegation from 10 to 11, App. in Miller v. Johnson, O. T. 1994, No. 94-631, p. 9, the state legislature began a lengthy political process of redistricting and considered the majority-minority district issue, among others. Id., at 10-14; see also Deposition of Linda Meggers, Record 11-17, 20-22, 32-33, 85 (May 6, 1994). The legislature proposed one plan in 1991 with two such districts. See Appendix,
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