22
RUCHO v. COMMON CAUSE
Opinion of the Court
IV
Appellees and the dissent propose a number of “tests”
for evaluating partisan gerrymandering claims, but none
meets the need for a limited and precise standard that is
judicially discernible and manageable. And none provides
a solid grounding for judges to take the extraordinary step
of reallocating power and influence between political
parties.
A
The Common Cause District Court concluded that all
but one of the districts in North Carolina’s 2016 Plan
violated the Equal Protection Clause by intentionally
diluting the voting strength of Democrats. 318 F. Supp.
3d, at 923. In reaching that result the court first required
the plaintiffs to prove “that a legislative mapdrawer’s
predominant purpose in drawing the lines of a particular
district was to ‘subordinate adherents of one political
party and entrench a rival party in power.’ ” Id., at 865
(quoting Arizona State Legislature v. Arizona Independent
Redistricting Comm’n, 576 U. S. ___, ___ (2015) (slip op.,
at 1)). The District Court next required a showing “that
the dilution of the votes of supporters of a disfavored party
in a particular district—by virtue of cracking or packing—
is likely to persist in subsequent elections such that an
elected representative from the favored party in the district will not feel a need to be responsive to constituents
who support the disfavored party.” 318 F. Supp. 3d, at
867. Finally, after a prima facie showing of partisan vote
dilution, the District Court shifted the burden to the defendants to prove that the discriminatory effects are “attributable to a legitimate state interest or other neutral
explanation.” Id., at 868.
The District Court’s “predominant intent” prong is
borrowed from the racial gerrymandering context. In
racial gerrymandering cases, we rely on a “predominant