Alexander v. South Carolina State Conference of the NAACP
U.S. Supreme Court · decided May 23, 2024 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Decided
- May 23, 2024
- Term
- October Term 2023
- Vote
- 6–3
- Majority author
- Justice Alito
- Issue area
- Civil Rights
- Disposition
- Reversed and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
Opinion excerpt
(Slip Opinion) OCTOBER TERM, 2023 1 Syllabus NOTE: Where it is feasible, a syllabus (headnote) will be released, as is being done in connection with this case, at the time the opinion is issued. The syllabus constitutes no part of the opinion of the Court but has been prepared by the Reporter of Decisions for the convenience of the reader. See United States v. Detroit Timber & Lumber Co., 200 U. S. 321 , 337. SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES Syllabus ALEXANDER, PRESIDENT OF THE SOUTH CAROLINA SENATE, ET AL. v. SOUTH CAROLINA STATE CONFERENCE OF THE NAACP ET AL. APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF SOUTH CAROLINA No. 22–807. Argued October 11, 2023—Decided May 23, 2024 The Constitution entrusts state legislatures with the primary responsi- bility for drawing congressional districts, and legislative redistricting is an inescapably political enterprise. Claims that a map is unconsti- tutional because it was drawn to achieve a partisan end are not justi- ciable in federal court. By contrast, if a legislature gives race a pre- dominant role in redistricting decisions, the resulting map is subjected to strict scrutiny and may be held unconstitutional. These doctrinal lines collide when race and partisan preference are highly correlated. This Court has endorsed two related propositions when navigating this tension. First, a party challenging a map’s…
Excerpt of a 208,607-character opinion. The full text and citation network load in the interactive viewer above.