306
Opinion of O'Connor, J.
Thus, Congress' response in enacting § 2(c) cannot be read to target anything more than situations in which a State had already "redistricted in the manner provided by the law thereof." And of course, once a State was redistricted in this manner, § 2a(c) by its terms would not apply. If anything, the enactment of § 2c in 1967 clarified that the statutory balance between §§ 2c and 2a(c) that had existed in prior versions of the statute would continue to exist.
The cases cited by the Court do not resolve the question of what happens when a State fails to redistrict "in the manner provided by the law thereof." 2 U. S. C. § 2a(c). The Court itself describes these pre-1967 cases as decisions where the courts "are remedying a failure to redistrict constitutionally." Ante, at 270. I agree with the Court that when a court strikes down a State's apportionment plan, § 2c mandates that a court "draw single-member districts whenever possible." Ibid. The historical context confirms that once a State is redistricted, and the court rules that the plan is unconstitutional, § 2c ensures that courts not order at-large elections. Because in these pre-1967 cases the legislature had redistricted "in the manner provided by the law thereof," § 2a(c) was not applicable. Thus, the Court cannot rely on these pre-1967 cases to support the notion that the
Ark. 1965) ("It is alleged that Act 5 of the Second Extraordinary Session of the Acts of the General Assembly of the State of Arkansas for the year of 1961, being the Act which divides the State of Arkansas into congressional districts, deprives plaintiff and others similarly situated of their right to vote" (citation omitted)); Preisler v. Secretary of State, 257 F. Supp. 953, 955 (WD Mo. 1966) (The "plaintiffs contest the constitutional validity of Missouri's 1965 Congressional Redistricting Act"); Meeks v. Anderson, 229 F. Supp. 271, 272 (Kan. 1964) ("The action was brought by qualified voters in four of the five Congressional Districts of Kansas, seeking to have Kansas Statutes, which is the last congressional reapportionment by the Kansas Legislature, declared unconstitutional" (citation omitted)); Baker v. Clement, 247 F. Supp. 886, 888 (MD Tenn. 1965) ("This case presents the question of whether the statute creating Tennessee's nine congressional districts violates Article 1, Section 2 of the Constitution of the United States").
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