Cite as: 539 U. S. 461 (2003)
Souter, J., dissenting
impact of the change in black voting age population. See, e. g., 195 F. Supp. 2d, at 93 ("The number of Senate Districts with majorities of BVAP would, according to Georgia's calculations, increase from twelve to thirteen; according to the Attorney General's interpretation of the census data, the number would decrease from twelve to eleven").
3
In a further try to improve the record, the Court focuses on the testimony of certain lay witnesses, politicians presented by the State to support its claim that the Senate plan is not retrogressive. Georgia, indeed, relied heavily on the near unanimity of minority legislators' support for the plan. But the District Court did not overlook this evidence; it simply found it inadequate to carry the State's burden of showing nonretrogression. The District Court majority explained that the "legislators' support is, in the end, far more probative of a lack of retrogressive purpose than of an absence of retrogressive effect." Id., at 89 (emphasis in original). As against the politicians' testimony, the District Court had contrary "credible," id., at 88, evidence of retrogressive effect. This evidence was the testimony of the expert witness presented by the United States, which "suggests the existence of highly racially polarized voting in the proposed districts," ibid., evidence of retrogressive effect to which Georgia offered "no competent" response, ibid. The District Court was clearly within bounds in finding that (1) Georgia's proposed plan decreased BVAP in the relevant districts, (2) the United States offered evidence of significant racial polarization in those districts, and (3) Georgia offered no adequate response to this evidence.
The reasonableness of the District Court's treatment of the evidence is underscored in its concluding reflection that it was possible Georgia could have shown the plan to be nonretrogressive, but the evidence the State had actually offered simply failed to do that. "There are, without doubt,
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