Cite as: 521 U. S. 567 (1997)
Scalia, J., dissenting
We accordingly affirm the decision of the District Court.
It is so ordered.
Justice Scalia, with whom Justice O’Connor, Justice
Kennedy, and Justice Thomas join, dissenting.
The Court today affirms a Federal District Court's redrawing of Florida Senate District 21, despite the fact that the District Court never determined that District 21 was unconstitutional, and never gave the State an opportunity to do its own redrawing of the district to remedy whatever unconstitutional features it contained. In my view, the District Court's actions represent an unprecedented intrusion upon state sovereignty.
I
The District Court held that it could exercise its authority under the Fourteenth Amendment to "compel the nullification and re-establishment of state legislative boundaries" without finding a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment, so long as "the case presents a sufficient evidentiary and legal basis to warrant the bona fide intervention of a federal court into matters typically reserved to a state." 920 F. Supp. 1248, 1251-1252 (MD Fla. 1996). Although acknowledging that the " '[d]efendants and defendant-intervenors deny these assertions [of unconstitutionality],' " id., at 1252-1253, n. 3 (quoting Settlement Agreement), the District Court determined that the claim that District 21 was unconstitutional was "fairly litigable," id., at 1253, n. 3, and found this enough to justify its reapportionment order.
The only authority cited by the District Court for the proposition that a court can mandate a remedy without finding liability is Justice O’Connor’s concurring opinion in Wygant v. Jackson Bd. of Ed., 476 U. S. 267, 284 (1986). But that opinion has no bearing on the present case. It dealt with the question whether a school board could, consistent with the Constitution, implement an affirmative-action pro-
583
Page: Index Previous 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 NextLast modified: October 4, 2007