Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/21pdf/21a375_d18f.pdf
Page Number: 15

6 

MERRILL v. MILLIGAN 

KAGAN, J., dissenting 

in 

the 

factors 

  The District Court also found that the plaintiffs made the 
required showings on the other Gingles conditions and the 
totality of the circumstances.  The court stated that “there 
is no serious dispute that Black voters [in Alabama] are ‘po-
litically  cohesive,’  nor  that  the  challenged  districts’  white 
majority votes ‘sufficiently as a bloc to usually defeat [Black 
voters’] preferred candidate[s].’ ”  App. 174 (quoting Cooper 
v. Harris, 581 U. S. ___, ___ (2017) (slip op., at 13)) (second 
alteration in original).  Too, the court found that the vast 
totality-of- 
considered 
majority  of 
circumstances inquiry favored the plaintiffs, including the 
“extent to which voting . . . is racially polarized” (very), the 
“extent to which members of the minority group have been 
elected to public office” (rarely), and the history of voting-
rights discrimination in the State (significant).  App. 178–
193.  The court noted that recent political campaigns in Al-
abama  had  included  “obvious  and  overt  appeals  to  race.”  
Id., at 190.  (To take just two, Congressman Mo Brooks “re-
peatedly claimed that Democrats [were] waging a ‘war on 
whites,’ ”  and  Roy  Moore  asserted  that  the  Civil  Rights 
Amendments  to  the  Constitution  “ ‘completely  tried  to 
wreck  the  form  of  government  that  our  forefathers  in-
tended.’ ”  Id., at 189–190.)  After all this, the court consid-
ered  whether,  under  Alabama’s  plan,  “the  number  of  dis-
tricts  in  which  the  minority  group  forms  an  effective 
majority is roughly proportional to its share of the popula-
tion.”   LULAC,  548 U. S.,  at  426.    The  court  found  it  was 
not, noting that Black Alabamians are 27% of the popula-
tion  but  have  meaningful  influence  over  just  14%  of  con-
gressional seats.  App. 194.  Or put another way, “less than 
one-third  of  Alabama’s  Black  population  resides  in  a  
majority-Black  district,  while  92%  of  Alabama’s  non- 
Hispanic white population resides in a majority-white dis-
trict.”  Id., at 194–195. 
  In light of that “extremely robust body of evidence,” the 
District Court held that the record “compels” the conclusion