Cite as: 532 U. S. 234 (2001)
Thomas, J., dissenting
in districting. However, I certainly cannot say that the court's inference from the facts was impermissible.6
Fourth, the court discredited the testimony of the State's witness, Dr. Peterson. 133 F. Supp. 2d, at 420 (explaining that Dr. Weber testified that Dr. Peterson's analysis "ignor[ed] the core," "ha[d] not been appropriately done," and was "unreliable"). Again, like the Court, if I were a district court judge, I might have found that Dr. Weber's insistence that one could not ignore the core was unpersuasive.7 However, even if the core could be ignored, it seems to me that Dr. Weber's testimony—that Dr. Peterson had failed to analyze all of the segments and thus that his analysis was incomplete, App. 119-120—reasonably could have supported the court's conclusion.
Finally, the court found that other evidence demonstrated that race was foremost on the legislative agenda: an e-mail
6 The Court also criticizes Dr. Weber's testimony that Precinct 77's split was racially motivated and his proposed alternative that all of Precinct 77 could have been moved into District 9. Apparently the Court believes that it is obvious that the Republican incumbent in District 9 would not have wanted the whole of Precinct 77 in her district. See ante, at 248. But the Court addresses only part of Dr. Weber's alternative of how the districts could have been drawn in a race-neutral fashion. Dr. Weber explained that the alternative was not simply to move Precinct 77 into District 9. The alternative would also include moving other reliably Democratic precincts out of District 9 and into District 12, which presumably would have satisfied the incumbent. App. 157. This move would have had the result, not only of keeping Precinct 77 intact, but also of widening the corridor between the eastern and western portions of District 9 and thereby increasing the functional contiguity. The Court's other criticism, that moving all of Precinct 77 into District 12 would not work, is simply a red herring. Dr. Weber talked only of moving all of Precinct 77 into District 9, not of moving all of Precinct 77 into District 12.
7 Of course, considering that District 12 has never been constitutionally drawn, Dr. Weber's criticism—that the problem with the district lies not just at its edges, but at its core—is not without force.
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