498
Souter, J., dissenting
of actual coalitions in the affected districts that would allow any retreat from majority-minority districts without a retrogressive effect. This central evidentiary finding is invulnerable under the correct standard of review.
This Court's review of the District Court's factual findings is for clear error. See, e. g., Miller v. Johnson, 515 U. S. 900, 917 (1995); Pleasant Grove v. United States, 479 U. S. 462, 469 (1987); McCain v. Lybrand, 465 U. S. 236, 258 (1984); City of Lockhart v. United States, 460 U. S. 125, 136 (1983). We have no business disturbing the District Court's ruling "simply because we would have decided the case differently," but only if based "on the entire evidence, [we are] left with the definite and firm conviction that a mistake has been committed." Easley v. Cromartie, 532 U. S. 234, 242 (2001) (internal quotation marks omitted). It is not, then, up to us to "decide whether Georgia's State Senate redistricting plan is retrogressive as compared to its previous, benchmark districting plan." Ante, at 466. Our sole responsibility is to see whether the District Court committed clear error in refusing to preclear the plan. It did not.
A
The District Court began with the acknowledgment (to which we would all assent) that the simple fact of a decrease in black voting age population (BVAP) in some districts is not alone dispositive about whether a proposed plan is retrogressive:
account of race or color" (internal quotation marks omitted)); id., at 480 (Section 5 "imposes upon a covered jurisdiction the difficult burden of proving the absence of discriminatory purpose and effect"); Reno v. Bossier Parish School Bd., 528 U. S. 320, 332 (2000) ("In the specific context of § 5 . . . the covered jurisdiction has the burden of persuasion"); cf. Beer v. United States, 425 U. S. 130, 140 (1976) (Congress in passing § 5 sought to "freez[e] election procedures in the covered areas unless the changes can be shown to be nondiscriminatory" (internal quotation marks omitted)).
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