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Opinion of the Court
fact that Dr. Weber's own proposed alternative plan, see id., at 106-107, would have pitted two incumbents against each other (Sue Myrick, a Republican from former District 9 and Mel Watt, a Democrat from former District 12). Dr. Weber testified that such a result—"a very competitive race with one of them losing their seat"—was desirable. Id., at 153. But the legislature, for political, not racial, reasons, believed the opposite. And it drew its plan to protect incumbents— a legitimate political goal recognized by the District Court. 133 F. Supp. 2d, at 412-413.
For these reasons, Dr. Weber's table offers little insight into the legislature's true motive.
3
The next part of the transcript the District Court cited contains Dr. Weber's testimony about a Mecklenburg County precinct (precinct 77) which the legislature split between Districts 9 and 12. Tr. 221. Dr. Weber apparently thought that the legislature did not have to split this precinct, placing the more heavily African-American segment within District 12—unless, of course, its motive was racial rather than political. But Dr. Weber simultaneously conceded that he had not considered whether District 9's incumbent Republican would have wanted the whole of precinct 77 left in her own district where it would have burdened her with a significant additional number of reliably Democratic voters. App. 156-157. Nor had Dr. Weber "test[ed]" his conclusion that this split helped to show a racial (rather than political) motive, say, by adjusting other boundary lines and determining the political, or other nonracial, consequences of such adjustments. Id., at 132.
The maps in evidence indicate that to have placed all of precinct 77 within District 12 would have created a District 12 peninsula that invaded District 9, neatly dividing that latter district in two, see id., at 496—a conclusive non-racial reason for the legislature's decision not to do so.
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