Cite as: 585 U. S. ____ (2018)
35
Opinion of the Court
Hill, 580 U. S., at ___ (slip op., at 12). In failing to perform that district-level analysis, the District Court went
astray.
Second, here, unlike in LULAC, the 2013 Legislature
had “good reasons” to believe that the district at issue
(here CD35) was a viable Latino opportunity district that
satisfied the Gingles factors. CD35 was based on a concept proposed by MALDEF, C. J. S. Findings 315a–316a,
and the Latino Redistricting Task Force (a plaintiff group)
argued that the district is mandated by §2. C. J. S. 174a.
The only Gingles factor disputed by the court was majority
bloc voting, and there is ample evidence that this factor is
met. Indeed, the court found that majority bloc voting
exists throughout the State. C. J. S. Findings 467a. In
addition, the District Court extensively analyzed CD35 in
2012 and determined that it was likely not a racial gerrymander and that even if it was, it likely satisfied strict
scrutiny. C. J. S. 415a. In other words, the 2013 Legislature justifiably thought that it had placed a viable opportunity district along the I–35 corridor.
2
The District Court similarly erred in holding that HD32
and HD34 violate §2. These districts make up the entirety
of Nueces County, which has a population that is almost
exactly equal to twice the population of an ideal Texas
House district. (It can fit 2.0295 ideal districts. H. J. S.
Findings 91a.) In 2010, Latinos made up approximately
56% of the voting age population of the county. Ibid. The
2013 plan created two districts that lie wholly within the
county; one, HD34, is a Latino opportunity district, but
the other, HD32, is not. 267 F. Supp. 3d, at 767.
Findings made by the court below show that these two
districts do not violate §2 of the Voting Rights Act. Under
Gingles, the ultimate question is whether a districting
decision dilutes the votes of minority voters, see LULAC,
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