Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/17pdf/16-1161_dc8f.pdf
Page Number: 33

Cite as:  585 U. S. ____ (2018) 

7 

KAGAN, J., concurring 

ferred  on  Republicans.    See  218  F. Supp.  3d,  at  890–896.
This Court has explicitly recognized the relevance of such
statewide  evidence  in  addressing  racial  gerrymandering 
claims  of  a  district-specific  nature.    “Voters,”  we  held,  “of 
course[ ]  can  present  statewide  evidence  in  order  to  prove
racial  gerrymandering  in  a  particular  district.”    Alabama 
Legislative  Black  Caucus  v.  Alabama,  575  U. S.  ___,  ___ 
(2015) (slip op., at 7).  And in particular, “[s]uch evidence 
is  perfectly  relevant”  to  showing  that  mapmakers  had  an
invidious  “motive”  in  drawing  the  lines  of  “multiple  dis­
tricts in the State.”  Id., at ___ (slip op., at 10).  The same 
should be true for partisan gerrymandering. 

Similarly, cases like this one might warrant a statewide
remedy.  Suppose that mapmakers pack or crack a critical 
mass  of  State  Assembly  districts  all  across  the  State  to
elect  as  many  Republican  politicians  as  possible.  And 
suppose  plaintiffs  residing  in  those  districts  prevail  in  a
suit  challenging  that  gerrymander  on  a  vote  dilution
theory.  The plaintiffs might then receive exactly the relief 
sought in this case.  To be sure, remedying each plaintiff ’s 
vote  dilution  injury  “requires  revising  only  such  districts 
as  are  necessary  to  reshape  [that  plaintiff ’s]  district—so
that the [plaintiff] may be unpacked or uncracked, as the 
case  may  be.”  Ante,  at  16.  But  with  enough  plaintiffs
joined  together—attacking  all  the  packed  and  cracked
districts  in  a  statewide  gerrymander—those  obligatory 
revisions could amount to a wholesale restructuring of the
State’s districting plan.  The Court recognizes as much.  It 
states  that  a  proper  remedy  in  a  vote  dilution  case  “does 
not  necessarily  require  restructuring  all  of  the  State’s 
legislative  districts.”  Ibid.  (emphasis  added).  Not  neces­
sarily—but  possibly.  It  all  depends  on  how  much  redis­
tricting is needed to cure all the packing and cracking that 
the mapmakers have done.