Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/12pdf/12-96_6k47.pdf
Page Number: 58

Cite as:  570 U. S. ____ (2013) 

27 

GINSBURG, J., dissenting 

tion,  concerns  about  backsliding  persist.    In  2008,  for 
example,  the  city  of  Calera,  located  in  Shelby  County,
requested preclearance of a redistricting plan that “would 
have  eliminated  the  city’s  sole  majority-black  district,
which had been created pursuant to the consent decree in 
Dillard.”    811  F. Supp.  2d  424,  443  (DC  2011).    Although
DOJ  objected  to  the  plan,  Calera  forged  ahead  with  elec­
tions based on the unprecleared voting changes, resulting 
in  the  defeat  of  the  incumbent  African-American  council­
man  who  represented  the  former  majority-black  district. 
Ibid.    The  city’s  defiance  required  DOJ  to  bring  a  §5  en­
forcement  action  that  ultimately  yielded  appropriate
redress,  including  restoration  of  the  majority-black  dis­
trict.  Ibid.;  Brief  for  Respondent-Intervenors  Earl  Cun­
ningham et al. 20.

A  recent  FBI  investigation  provides  a  further  window
into  the  persistence  of  racial  discrimination  in  state  poli­
tics.  See United States v. McGregor, 824 F. Supp. 2d 1339, 
1344–1348  (MD  Ala.  2011).    Recording  devices  worn  by
state  legislators  cooperating  with  the  FBI’s  investigation 
captured  conversations  between  members  of  the  state 
legislature and their political allies.  The recorded conver­
sations  are  shocking.    Members  of  the  state  Senate  deri­
sively refer to African-Americans as “Aborigines” and talk 
openly of their aim to quash a particular gambling-related
referendum  because  the  referendum,  if  placed  on  the 
ballot,  might  increase  African-American  voter  turnout. 
Id., at 1345–1346 (internal quotation marks omitted).  See 
also  id.,  at  1345  (legislators  and  their  allies  expressed 
concern  that  if  the  referendum  were  placed  on  the  ballot,
“ ‘[e]very  black,  every  illiterate’  would  be  ‘bused  [to  the
polls] on HUD financed buses’ ”).  These conversations oc­
curred  not  in  the  1870’s,  or  even  in  the  1960’s,  they  took 
place  in  2010. 
Id.,  at  1344–1345.  The  District  Judge
presiding  over  the  criminal  trial  at  which  the  recorded
conversations  were  introduced  commented  that  the  “re­