588
Scalia, J., dissenting
II
The District Court's failure to find the pre-existing District 21 unconstitutional is alone enough to require reversal of the judgment. But the District Court committed a second error, in failing to give the Florida Legislature the opportunity to redraw the district before imposing a court-ordered solution. We have repeatedly emphasized that federal interference with state districting "represents a serious intrusion on the most vital of local functions," Miller v. Johnson, 515 U. S. 900, 915 (1995), and that "reapportionment[, which] is primarily the duty and responsibility of the State," Chapman v. Meier, 420 U. S. 1, 27 (1975), " 'is primarily a matter for legislative consideration and determination,' " Connor v. Finch, supra, at 414 (quoting Reynolds v. Sims, 377 U. S. 533, 586 (1964)). " '[J]udicial relief becomes appropriate,' " we have said, " 'only when a legislature fails to reapportion according to federal constitutional requisites in a timely fashion after having had an adequate opportunity to do so.' " White v. Weiser, supra, at 794-795 (quoting Reynolds, supra, at 586). See also Growe v. Emison, 507 U. S. 25, 33-34 (1993); Upham v. Seamon, 456 U. S. 37, 41-42 (1982) (per curiam); McDaniel v. Sanchez, 452 U. S. 130, 142 (1981); Wise v. Lipscomb, 437 U. S. 535, 540 (1978) (opinion of White, J.). The District Court's failure to give Florida a reasonable opportunity to craft its own solution after a judicial finding that the current districting was unconstitutional—or even (since here such a finding was never made) after the judicial finding that a constitutional claim is "fairly litigable"—was most assuredly error.
The District Court repeatedly referred to Plan 386 as a "legislative solution," 920 F. Supp., at 1255, and the concurrence described it as a "plan that the Florida legislature has proposed," id., at 1257. But judicial characterization does not overcome reality. The fact that the Speaker of Florida's House of Representatives and the President of Florida's Sen-
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