Cite as: 526 U. S. 541 (1999)
Opinion of the Court
Districting legislation ordinarily, if not always, classifies tracts of land, precincts, or census blocks, and is race neutral on its face. North Carolina's 1997 plan was not atypical; appellees, therefore, were required to prove that District 12 was drawn with an impermissible racial motive—in this context, strict scrutiny applies if race was the "predominant factor" motivating the legislature's districting decision. To carry their burden, appellees were obliged to show—using direct or circumstantial evidence, or a combination of both, see Shaw II, supra, at 905; Miller, 515 U. S., at 916—that "the legislature subordinated traditional race-neutral districting principles, including but not limited to compactness, contiguity, and respect for political subdivisions or communities defined by actual shared interests, to racial considerations," ibid.
Appellees offered only circumstantial evidence in support of their claim. Their evidence included maps of District 12, showing its size, shape,3 and alleged lack of continuity. See Appendix, infra. They also submitted evidence of the district's low scores with respect to traditional measures of compactness and expert affidavit testimony explaining that this statistical evidence proved the State had ignored traditional districting criteria in crafting the new Twelfth Congressional District. See App. 221-251. Appellees further claimed that the State had disrespected political subdivisions and communities of interest. In support, they pointed out that under the 1997 plan, District 12 was the only one state-3 Justice Stevens asserts that proof of a district's "bizarre configuration" gives rise equally to an inference that its architects were motivated by politics or race. Post, at 555. We do not necessarily quarrel with the proposition that a district's unusual shape can give rise to an inference of political motivation. But we doubt that a bizarre shape equally supports a political inference and a racial one. Some districts, we have said, are "so highly irregular that [they] rationally cannot be understood as anything other than an effort to 'segregat[e] . . . voters' on the basis of race." Shaw I, 509 U. S. 630, 646-647 (1993) (quoting Gomillion v. Lightfoot, 364 U. S. 339, 341 (1960)).
547
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