Branch v. Smith, 538 U.S. 254, 3 (2003)

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256

BRANCH v. SMITH

Syllabus

§§ 2a(c)(5) and 2c is apparent: Pending redistricting, § 2a(c)(5) requires at-large elections if a State loses a congressional seat, while § 2c, which was enacted 26 years later, requires States with more than one Representative to use single-member districts. Contrary to the federal plaintiffs' contention, § 2c is not limited to legislative action, but also applies to action by state and federal courts when the prescribed legislative action has not been forthcoming. When § 2c was adopted in 1967, the issue was precisely the courts' involvement in fashioning electoral plans. The Voting Rights Act had recently been enacted, and this Court's decisions in, e. g., Baker v. Carr, 369 U. S. 186, had ushered in a new era in which federal courts were overseeing efforts by badly malapportioned States to conform their congressional districts to one-person, one-vote standards. Given the risk that judges would simply order at-large elections, it is most unlikely that § 2c was directed solely at legislative apportionment. Nor has any court found § 2c to be so limited. In addition, § 2c's language is most susceptible of this interpretation. Pp. 266-272.

Justice Scalia, joined by The Chief Justice, Justice Kennedy, and Justice Ginsburg, concluded in Part III-B that § 2a(c)—where what it prescribes is constitutional (as it is in paragraph (5))—applies when a state legislature and the state and federal courts have all failed to redistrict pursuant to § 2c. This interpretation allows both §§ 2a(c) and 2c to be given effect. Section 2a(c) governs the manner of any election held "[u]ntil a State is redistricted in the manner provided by [state] law after any apportionment." When a court redistricts pursuant to § 2c, it necessarily does so in such a manner because it must follow the State's "policies and preferences" for districting. White v. Weiser, 412 U. S. 783, 795. A court may invoke § 2a(c)'s stopgap provision only when an election is so imminent that redistricting pursuant to state law (including § 2c's mandate) cannot be completed without disrupting the election process. Mississippi's at-large provision should be deemed operative when §§ 2a(c)(2) and (5) would be: The state provision envisions both legislatively and judicially prescribed change and does not come into play as long as it is feasible for a state or federal court to complete redistricting. Pp. 273-276.

Justice Stevens, joined by Justice Souter and Justice Breyer, while agreeing that the District Court properly enjoined the state-court plan's enforcement and promulgated its own plan under 2 U. S. C. § 2c, concluded that § 2c impliedly repealed § 2a(c) and that the 1967 federal Act pre-empted Mississippi's statutory authorization for at-large congressional elections. The presumption against implied repeals, like that against pre-emption, is overcome if there is an irreconcilable conflict between the two provisions or if the later Act was clearly intended

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