Cite as: 526 U. S. 541 (1999)
Opinion of the Court
sults. Peterson's more complete analysis was significant because it showed that in North Carolina, party registration and party preference do not always correspond.6
Accepting appellants' political motivation explanation as true, as the District Court was required to do in ruling on appellees' motion for summary judgment, see Anderson, 477 U. S., at 255, appellees were not entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Our prior decisions have made clear that a jurisdiction may engage in constitutional political gerry-mandering, even if it so happens that the most loyal Democrats happen to be black Democrats and even if the State were conscious of that fact. See Bush v. Vera, 517 U. S. 952, 968 (1996); id., at 1001 (Thomas, J., concurring in judgment); Shaw II, supra, at 905; Miller, 515 U. S., at 916; Shaw I, 509 U. S., at 646.7 Evidence that blacks constitute even a supermajority in one congressional district while amount-6 In addition to the evidence that appellants presented to the District Court, they have submitted with their reply brief maps showing that in almost all of the majority-Democrat registered precincts surrounding those portions of District 12 in Guilford, Forsyth, and Mecklenburg Counties, Republican candidates were elected in at least one of the three elections considered by the state defendants' expert. Reply Brief for State Appellants 4-8; App. to Reply Brief for State Appellants 1a-10a. Appellants apparently did not put this additional evidence before the District Court prior to the court's decision on the competing motions for summary judgment. They claim excuse in that appellees filed their maps showing partisan registration at the "eleventh hour." Brief for State Appellants 10, n. 13. We are not sure why appellants believe the timing of appellees' filing to be an excuse. The District Court set an advance deadline for filings in support of the competing motions for summary judgment, so appellants could not have been caught by surprise. And given that appellants not only had to respond to appellees' evidence, but also had their own motion for summary judgment to support, one would think that the District Court would not have needed to afford them "an adequate opportunity to respond." Ibid.
7 This Court has recognized, however, that political gerrymandering claims are justiciable under the Equal Protection Clause although we were not in agreement as to the standards that would govern such a claim. See Davis v. Bandemer, 478 U. S. 109, 127 (1986).
551
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