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Page Number: 47

16 

SHELBY COUNTY v. HOLDER 

GINSBURG, J., dissenting 

	  In  2001,  the  mayor  and  all-white  five-member 
Board  of  Aldermen  of  Kilmichael,  Mississippi, 
abruptly  canceled  the  town’s  election  after  “an
unprecedented  number”  of  African-American  can­
didates  announced  they  were  running  for  office.
DOJ  required  an  election,  and  the  town  elected  its
first black mayor and three black aldermen.  Id., at 
36–37. 

	  In 2006, this Court found that Texas’ attempt to re­
draw a congressional district to reduce the strength
of  Latino  voters  bore  “the  mark  of  intentional  dis­
crimination  that  could  give  rise  to  an  equal  protec­
tion  violation,”  and  ordered  the  district  redrawn  in 
compliance  with  the  VRA.    League  of  United  Latin 
American  Citizens  v.  Perry,  548  U. S.  399,  440 
(2006). 
In  response,  Texas  sought  to  undermine
this  Court’s  order  by  curtailing  early  voting  in  the 
district, but was blocked by an action to enforce the
§5  preclearance  requirement.  See  Order  in  League 
of  United  Latin  American  Citizens  v.  Texas,  No. 
06–cv–1046 (WD Tex.), Doc. 8. 

	  In 2003, after African-Americans won a majority of 
the  seats  on  the  school  board  for  the  first  time  in 
history,  Charleston  County,  South  Carolina,  pro­
posed  an  at-large  voting  mechanism  for  the  board.
The  proposal,  made  without  consulting  any  of  the
African-American  members  of  the  school  board, 
was  found  to  be  an  “ ‘exact  replica’ ”  of  an  earlier 
voting scheme that, a federal court had determined,
violated  the  VRA.  811  F. Supp.  2d  424,  483  (DDC 
2011).  See  also  S. Rep.  No.  109–295,  at  309.    DOJ 
invoked §5 to block the proposal. 

	  In 1993, the City of Millen, Georgia, proposed to de­

lay  the  election  in  a  majority-black  district  by  two