US SUPREME COURT DECISIONS
Bartlett v. Strickland 556 U. S. ____
Subscribe to Cases that cite 556 U. S. ____Syllabus
Opinion [Justice Kennedy]
Concurrence [Justice Thomas]
Dissent [Justice Souter]
Dissent [Justice Ginsburg]
Dissent [Justice Breyer,]
556 U. S. ____ (2009)
556 U. S. ____ (2009)
556 U. S. ____ (2009)
SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES
NO. 07-689
GARY BARTLETT, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE NORTH CAROLINA STATE BOARD OF ELECTIONS, et al., PETITIONERS v. DWIGHT STRICKLAND et al.
on writ of certiorari to the supreme court of north carolina
[March 9, 2009]
Justice Thomas, with whom Justice Scalia joins, concurring in the judgment.
I continue to adhere to the views expressed in my opinion in Holder v. Hall, 512 U. S. 874, 891 (1994) (opinion concurring in judgment). The text of §2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 does not authorize any vote dilution claim, regardless of the size of the minority population in a given district. See 42 U. S. C. §1973(a) (2000 ed.) (permitting only a challenge to a “voting qualification or prerequisite to voting or standard, practice, or procedure”); see also Holder, supra, at 893 (stating that the terms “ ‘standard, practice, or procedure’ ” “reach only state enactments that limit citizens’ access to the ballot”). I continue to disagree, therefore, with the framework set forth in Thornburg v. Gingles, 478 U. S. 30 (1986), for analyzing vote dilution claims because it has no basis in the text of §2. I would not evaluate any Voting Rights Act claim under a test that “has produced such a disastrous misadventure in judicial policymaking.” Holder, supra, at 893. For these reasons, I concur only in the judgment.
