Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/22pdf/21-1086_1co6.pdf
Page Number: 12.0

Cite as:  599 U. S. ____ (2023) 

5 

Opinion of the Court 

only to the extent that it approximated a standard of pro-
portional representation by race.”  Boyd & Markman 1392.  
The  Attorney  General  had  the  same  concern.    The  effects 
test “would be triggered whenever election results did not 
mirror the population mix  of  a  particular  community,”  he 
wrote,  producing  “essentially  a  quota  system  for  electoral 
politics.”  N. Y. Times, Mar. 27, 1982, p. 23. 
  The impasse was not resolved until late April 1982, when 
Senator Bob Dole proposed a compromise.  Boyd & Mark-
man  1414.    Section  2  would  include  the  effects  test  that 
many desired but also a robust disclaimer against propor-
tionality.  Seeking to navigate any tension between the two, 
the Dole Amendment borrowed language from a Fourteenth 
Amendment case of ours, White v. Regester, 412 U. S. 755 
(1973),  which  many  in  Congress  believed  would  allow 
courts  to  consider  effects  but  avoid  proportionality.    The 
standard for liability in voting cases, White explained, was 
whether “the political processes leading to nomination and 
election were not equally open to participation by the group 
in  question—[in]  that  its  members  had  less  opportunity 
than did other residents in the district to participate in the 
political processes  and to  elect  legislators of  their  choice.”  
Id., at 766. 
  The  Dole  compromise  won  bipartisan  support  and,  on 
June  18,  the  Senate  passed  the  1982  amendments  by  an 
overwhelming margin, 85–8.  Eleven days later, President 
Reagan signed the Act into law.  The amended §2 reads as 
follows: 

  “(a) No voting qualification or prerequisite to voting 
or standard, practice, or procedure shall be imposed or 
applied by any State or political subdivision in a man-
ner  which  results  in  a  denial  or  abridgement  of  the 
right of any citizen of the United States to vote on ac-
count of race or color . . . as provided in subsection (b). 
  “(b)  A  violation  of  subsection  (a)  is  established  if,