Bethune-hill v. VA BD. of Elections
U.S. Supreme Court · decided March 1, 2017 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Decided
- March 1, 2017
- Term
- October Term 2016
- Vote
- 8–0
- Majority author
- Justice Kennedy
- Issue area
- Civil Rights
- Disposition
- Affirmed and reversed (or vacated) in part and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
Opinion excerpt
Justice KENNEDY delivered the opinion of the Court. This case addresses whether the Virginia state legislature's consideration of race in drawing new lines for 12 state legislative districts violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. After the 2010 census, some redistricting was required to ensure proper numerical apportionment for the Virginia House of Delegates. It is undisputed that the boundary lines for the 12 districts at issue were drawn with a goal of ensuring that each district would have a black voting-age population (BVAP) of at least 55%. Certain voters challenged the new districts as unconstitutional racial gerrymanders. The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, constituted as a three-judge district court, rejected the challenges as to each of the 12 districts. As to 11 of the districts, the District Court concluded that the voters had not shown, as this Court's precedent requires, "that race was the predominant factor motivating the legislature's decision to place a significant number of voters within or without a particular district." Miller v. Johnson, 515 U.S. 900, 916, 115 S.Ct. 2475, 132 L.Ed.2d 762 (1995). The District Court held that race predominates only where there is an " 'actual conflict between traditional redistricting criteria and race,' " 141 F.Supp.3d 505, 524 (E.D.Va.2015), so it confined the…
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