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Page Number: 47.0

2 

ALLEN v. MILLIGAN 

THOMAS, J., dissenting 

U. S.,  at  907  (opinion  of  THOMAS,  J.).    The  question  pre-
sented is whether §2 of the Act, as amended, requires the 
State of Alabama to intentionally redraw its longstanding 
congressional  districts  so  that  black  voters  can  control  a 
number of seats roughly proportional to the black share of 
the State’s population.  Section 2 demands no such thing, 
and, if it did, the Constitution would not permit it. 

I 
  At the outset, I would resolve these cases in a way that 
would not require the Federal Judiciary to decide the cor-
rect racial apportionment of Alabama’s congressional seats.  
Under the statutory text, a §2 challenge must target a “vot-
ing qualification or prerequisite to voting or standard, prac-
tice, or procedure.”  52 U. S. C. §10301(a).  I have long been 
convinced  that  those  words  reach  only  “enactments  that 
regulate  citizens’  access  to  the  ballot  or  the  processes  for 
counting a ballot”; they “do not include a State’s . . . choice 
of one districting scheme over another.”  Holder, 512 U. S., 
at 945 (opinion of THOMAS, J.).  “Thus, §2 cannot provide a 
basis  for  invalidating  any  district.”    Abbott  v.  Perez,  585 
U. S. ___, ___ (2018) (THOMAS, J., concurring) (slip op., at 
1). 
  While I will not repeat all the arguments that led me to 
this  conclusion  nearly  three  decades  ago,  see  Holder,  512 
U. S.,  at  914–930  (opinion  concurring  in  judgment),  the 
Court’s belated appeal to the statutory text is not persua-
sive.   See ante,  at  31–32.    Whatever words  like  “practice” 
and “procedure”  are  capable  of  meaning  in  a vacuum,  the 
prohibitions of §2 apply to practices and procedures that af-
fect “voting” and “the right . . . to vote.”  §10301(a).  “Vote” 
and “voting” are defined terms under the Act, and the Act’s 
definition plainly focuses on ballot access and counting: 

  “The  terms  ‘vote’  or  ‘voting’  shall  include  all  action 
necessary to make a vote effective in any primary, spe-
cial, or general election, including, but not limited to,