Cite as: 602 U. S. ____ (2024)
11
THOMAS, J., concurring in part
Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act Since 1982, 39 U. Mich.
J. L. Reform 643, 730–732 (2006)). A proportionality approach is easy to apply, but it is “radically inconsistent with
the [Reconstruction] Amendments’ command that government treat citizens as individuals and their ‘goal of a political system in which race no longer matters.’ ” 599 U. S., at
82 (quoting Shaw, 509 U. S., at 657).
I continue to believe that “[t]he matters the Court has set
out to resolve in vote dilution cases are . . . not questions of
law,” and that “they are not readily subjected to any judicially manageable standards.” Holder, 512 U. S., at 901–
902 (opinion of THOMAS, J.). The Court’s determination to
nonetheless adjudicate these cases has yielded an unconstitutional practice of distributing of political power based on
race.
B
Racial gerrymandering and vote dilution claims—at a
minimum, those challenging congressional districts—are
nonjusticiable for an additional reason: The Elections
Clause makes a “textually demonstrable constitutional
commitment” of the power to oversee congressional districting to “a coordinate political department,” Congress. Vieth,
541 U. S., at 277 (internal quotation marks omitted). And,
no other constitutional provision overcomes that commitment to Congress. The Constitution contemplates no role
for the federal courts in the districting process.
1
Although States have the initial duty to draw district
lines, the Elections Clause commits exclusive supervisory
authority over the States’ drawing of congressional districts
to Congress—not federal courts. It provides: “The Times,
Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and
Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the
Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by