Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/18pdf/18-281_6j37.pdf
Page Number: 17

2 

VIRGINIA HOUSE OF DELEGATES v. BETHUNE-HILL 

ALITO, J., dissenting 

that  the  new  districting  plan  ordered  by  the  lower  court 
will harm the House in a very fundamental way.  A legis-
lative  districting  plan  powerfully  affects  a  legislative 
body’s  output  of  work.    Each  legislator  represents  a  par-
ticular district, and each district contains a particular set 
of  constituents  with  particular  interests  and  views.    Cf., 
e.g., App. 165 (noting the “varied factors that can create or 
contribute  to  communities  of  interest”  in  districts  (House 
Committee  on  Privileges  and  Elections  resolution)).    The 
interests  and  views  of  these  constituents  generally  have 
an important effect on everything that a legislator does—
meeting  with  the  representatives  of  organizations  and 
groups seeking the legislator’s help in one way or another, 
drafting  and  sponsoring  bills,  pushing  for  and  participat-
ing  in  hearings,  writing  or  approving  reports,  and  of 
course,  voting.    When  the  boundaries  of  a  district  are 
changed,  the  constituents  and  communities  of  interest 
present within the district are altered, and this is likely to 
change the way in which the district’s representative does 
his or her work.  And while every individual voter will end 
up  being  represented  by  a  legislator  no  matter  which 
districting  plan  is  ultimately  used,  it  matters  a  lot  how 
voters with shared interests and views are concentrated or 
split up.  The cumulative effects of all the decisions that go 
into  a  districting  plan  have  an  important  impact  on  the 
overall work of the body. 
  All of this should really go without saying.  After all, it 
is  precisely  because  of  the  connections  between  the  way 
districts  are  drawn,  the  composition  of  a  legislature,  and 
the  things  that  a  legislature  does  that  so  much  effort  is 
invested in drawing, contesting, and defending districting 
plans.  Districting matters because it has institutional and 
legislative  consequences.    To  suggest  otherwise,  to  argue 
that substituting one plan for another has no effect on the 
work  or  output  of  the  legislative  body  whose  districts  are 
changed, would really be quite astounding.  If the selection