Cite as: 585 U. S. ____ (2018)
29
Opinion of the Court
work was anything but slapdash. All these facts gave the
Legislature good reason to believe that the court-approved
interim plans were legally sound.
Is there any evidence from which a contrary inference
can reasonably be drawn? Appellees stress the preliminary nature of the Texas court’s approval of the interim
plans, and as we have said, that fact is relevant. But in
light of our instructions to the Texas court and the care
with which the interim plans were developed, the court’s
approval still gave the Legislature a sound basis for thinking that the interim plans satisfied all legal requirements.
The court below and the dissent infer bad faith because
the Legislature “pushed the redistricting bills through
quickly in a special session.” 274 F. Supp. 3d, at 649. But
we do not see how the brevity of the legislative process can
give rise to an inference of bad faith—and certainly not an
inference that is strong enough to overcome the presumption of legislative good faith (a concept to which the dissent pays only the briefest lip service, post, at 21). The
“special session” was necessary because the regular session had ended. As explained, the Legislature had good
reason to believe that the interim plans were sound, and
the adoption of those already-completed plans did not
require a prolonged process. After all, part of the reason
for adopting those plans was to avoid the time and expense of starting from scratch and leaving the electoral
process in limbo while that occurred.23
The District Court and the dissent also err when they
charge that Representative Darby, the chair of the Texas
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23 Moreover, in criticizing the Legislature for moving too quickly, the
dissent downplays the significant time and effort that went into consideration of the 2013 plans. Legislative committees held multiple field
hearings in four cities, Tr. 1507 (July 14, 2017), and the legislative
actors spent significant time considering the legislation, as well as
accepting and rejecting amendments, see, e.g., Joint Exh. 17.3, p. S29;
Joint Exh. 24.4, p. 21.
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