Cite as: 538 U. S. 254 (2003)
Opinion of O'Connor, J.
elected from the districts then prescribed by the law of such State." While it is true today that no district could in all probability remain exactly the same after an apportionment, it was not true in 1967.
This Court did not hold that a strict zero-deviation rule applied to redistricting cases until the 1983 decision of Karcher v. Daggett, 462 U. S. 725. Indeed, the decision of this Court in Wesberry v. Sanders, supra, stated only that congressional districts must be equal to each other "as nearly as is practicable." Id., at 7-8. As Justice Stevens points out, after Wesberry, the House passed a bill in 1965 permitting congressional districts to deviate by as much as 15%. See ante, at 287-288. In 1967, in the same Congress that passed § 2c, the House passed a bill permitting congressional districts to deviate by as much as 10%. See ante, at 289. And it appears that at least with the State of New Mexico, the congressional apportionment plan did not change after the 1970 census. See Martis 247 (noting that New Mexico used its 1968 districting plan from the 91st through the 97th Congresses—in other words, from 1968 through 1983). These same principles also explain why as of 1967, §§ 2a(c)(2), 2a(c)(3), and 2a(c)(4) were similarly constitutional.
Even if parts of § 2a(c) would be unconstitutional today, a court can redistrict the existing district lines to make the districts constitutional while ordering an at-large election for the additional Representatives. Indeed, this approach best accords with the principle that a federal court's "modifications of a state plan are limited to those necessary to cure any constitutional or statutory defect." Upham v. Seamon, 456 U. S. 37, 43 (1982) (per curiam). And even if only § 2a(c)(5) were constitutional, the plurality correctly recognizes that § 2a(c)(5) is easily severable from the rest of the statute. See ante, at 273.
Finally, the fact that a court must enter an order under § 2a(c)(5) mandating at-large elections does not necessarily mean that the plan would violate §§ 2 or 5 of the Voting
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