34
ABBOTT v. PEREZ
Opinion of the Court
west Texas do not permit the creation of any more than
the seven Latino opportunity districts that exist under the
current plan. 274 F. Supp. 3d, at 684, and n. 85.
Attempting to get around this problem, the Texas court
relied on our decision in LULAC, but it misapplied our
holding. In LULAC, we held that the State should have
created six proper Latino opportunity districts but instead
drew only five. 548 U. S., at 435. Although the State
claimed that the plan actually included a sixth opportunity district, that district failed to satisfy the Gingles factors. 548 U. S., at 430. We held that a “State’s creation of
an opportunity district for those without a §2 right offers
no excuse for its failure to provide an opportunity district
for those with a §2 right.” Ibid.
Here, the Texas court concluded that Texas committed
the same violation as in LULAC: It created “an opportunity district for those without a §2 right” (the Latinos in
CD35), while failing to create such a district “for those
with a §2 right” (the Latinos of Nueces County). Ibid.
This holding is based on a flawed analysis of CD35.
CD35 lies to the north of CD27 and runs along I–35
from San Antonio up to Austin, the center of Travis County.
In the District Court’s view, the Latinos of CD35 do
not have a §2 right because one of the Gingles factors,
majority bloc voting, is not present. The Court reached
this conclusion because the non-Latino voters of Travis
County tend to favor the same candidates as the great
majority of Latinos. There are two serious problems with
the District Court’s analysis.
First, the Court took the wrong approach in evaluating
the presence of majority bloc voting in CD35. The Court
looked at only one, small part of the district, the portion
that falls within Travis County. 274 F. Supp. 3d, at 683;
C. J. S. 175a–176a. But Travis County makes up only
21% of the district. We have made clear that redistricting
analysis must take place at the district level. Bethune-
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