Court Opinion

ID: 9428926
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:25:09.770338+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:23:16.210365
License: Public Domain

Justice Stevens,
dissenting.
Our legacy of racial discrimination has left its scars on Burke County, Georgia.1 The record in this case amply sup*632ports the conclusion that the governing officials of Burke County have repeatedly denied black citizens rights guaranteed by the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the Federal Constitution. No one could legitimately question the validity of remedial measures, whether legislative or judicial, designed to prohibit discriminatory conduct by public officials and to guarantee that black citizens are effectively afforded the rights to register and to vote. Public roads may not be paved only in areas in which white citizens live;2 black citizens may not be denied employment opportunities in county government;3 segregated schools may not be maintained.4
Nor, in my opinion, could there be any doubt about the constitutionality of an amendment to the Voting Rights Act that would require Burke County and other covered jurisdictions to abandon specific kinds of at-large voting schemes that perpetuate the effects of past discrimination. “As against the reserved powers of the States, Congress may use any rational means to effectuate the constitutional prohibition of racial discrimination in voting.” South Carolina v. Katzenbach, 383 U. S. 301, 324. It might indeed be wise policy to accelerate the transition of minority groups to a position of political power commensurate with their voting strength by amending the Act to prohibit the use of multimember districts in all covered jurisdictions.
The Court’s decision today, however, is not based on either its own conception of sound policy or any statutory command. The decision rests entirely on the Court’s interpretation of the requirements of the Federal Constitution. Despite my sympathetic appraisal of the Court's laudable goals, I am unable to agree with its approach to the constitutional issue that *633is presented. In my opinion, this case raises questions that encompass more than the immediate plight of disadvantaged black citizens. I believe the Court errs by holding the structure of the local governmental unit unconstitutional without identifying an acceptable, judicially manageable standard for adjudicating cases of this kind.
I
The Court’s entry into the business of electoral reapportionment in 1962 was preceded by a lengthy and scholarly debate over the role the judiciary legitimately could play in what Justice Frankfurter described in Colegrove v. Green, 328 U. S. 549, as a “political thicket.”5 In that case, decided in 1946, the Court declined to entertain a challenge to single-member congressional districts in Illinois that had been cre*634ated in 1901 and had become grossly unequal by reason of the great growth in urban population.6 In dissent, Justice Black advocated the use of a statewide, at-large election of representatives; he argued that an at-large election “has an element of virtue that the more convenient method does not have — namely, it does not discriminate against some groups to favor others, it gives all the people an equally effective voice in electing their representatives as is essential under a free government, and it is constitutional.” Id., at 574.
In 1962, the Court changed course. In another challenge to the constitutionality of a 1901 districting statute, it held that the political question doctrine did not foreclose judicial review. Baker v. Carr, 369 U. S. 186. That decision represents one of the great landmarks in the history of this Court’s jurisprudence.
Two aspects of the Court’s opinion in Baker v. Carr are of special relevance to the case the Court decides today. First, the Court’s scholarly review of the political question doctrine focused on the dominant importance of satisfactory standards for judicial determination.7 Second, the Court’s articulation *635of the relevant constitutional standard made no reference to subjective intent.8 The host of cases that have arisen in the wake of Baker v. Carr have shared these two characteristics. They have formulated, refined, and applied a judicially manageable standard that has become known as the one-person, one-vote rule; they have attached no significance to the subjective intent of the decisionmakers who adopted or maintained the official rule under attack.
In reviewing the constitutionality of the structure of a local government, two quite different methods of analysis could be employed. The Court might identify the specific features of the government that raise constitutional concerns and decide whether, singly or in combination, they are valid. This is the approach the Court has used in testing the constitutionality of rules conditioning the right to vote on payment of a poll tax,9 imposing burdens on independent candidates,10 denying *636new residents or members of the Armed Forces the right to vote,11 prohibiting crossovers in party primaries,12 requiring political candidates to pay filing fees,13 and disadvantaging minority parties in Presidential elections.14 In none of these cases did the validity of the electoral procedure turn on whether the legislators who enacted the rule subjectively intended to discriminate against minority voters. Under the approach employed by the Court in those cases, the objective circumstances that led to a declaration that an election procedure was unconstitutional would invalidate a similar law wherever it might be found.
Alternatively, the Court could employ a subjective approach under which the constitutionality of a challenged procedure depends entirely on federal judges’ appraisals of the reasons why particular localities have chosen to govern themselves in a particular way. The Constitution would simply protect a right to have an electoral machinery established and maintained without the influence of impermissible factors. Constitutional challenges to identical procedures in neighboring communities could produce totally different results, for the subjective motivations of the legislators who enacted the procedures — or at least the admissible evidence that might be discovered concerning such motivation — could be quite different.
In deciding the question presented in this case, the Court abruptly rejects the former approach and considers only the latter. It starts from the premise that Burke County’s at-*637large method of electing its. five county commissioners is, on its face, unobjectionable. The otherwise valid system is unconstitutional, however, because it makes it more difficult for the minority to elect commissioners and because the majority that is now in power has maintained the system for that very reason. Two factors are apparently of critical importance: (1) the intent of the majority to maintain control; and (2) the racial character of the minority.15
I am troubled by each aspect of the Court’s analysis. In my opinion, the question whether Burke County’s at-large system may survive scrutiny under a purely objective analysis is not nearly as easy to answer as the Court implies. Assuming, however, that the system is otherwise valid, I do not believe that the subjective intent of the persons who adopted the system in 1911, or the intent of those who have since declined to change it, can determine its constitutionality. Even if the intent of the political majority were the controlling constitutional consideration, I could not agree that the only political groups that are entitled to protection under the Court’s rule are those defined by racial characteristics.
II
At-large voting systems generally tend to maximize the political power of the majority. See ante, at 616.16 There are, *638however, many types of at-large electoral schemes. Three features of Burke County’s electoral system are noteworthy, not in my opinion because they shed special light on the subjective intent of certain unidentified people, but rather because they make it especially difficult for a minority candidate to win an election. First, although the qualifications and the duties of the office are identical for all five commissioners, each runs for a separately designated position.17 *639Second, in order to be elected, each commissioner must receive a majority of all votes cast in the primary and in the general election; if the leading candidate receives only a plurality, a runoff election must be held. Third, there are no residency requirements; thus, all candidates could reside in a single, all-white neighborhood.18
Even if one assumes that a system of local government in which power is concentrated in the hands of a small group of persons elected from the community at large is an acceptable — or perhaps even a preferred — form of municipal government,19 it is not immediately apparent that these addi*640tional features that help to perpetuate the power of an entrenched majority are either desirable or legitimate.20 If the only purpose these features serve — particularly when viewed in combination — is to assist a dominant party to maintain its political power, they are no more legitimate than the Tennessee districts described in Baker v. Carr as “no policy, but simply arbitrary and capricious action.” 369 U. S., at 226 (emphasis in original). Unless these features are independently justified, they may be invalid simply because there is no legitimate justification for their impact on minority participation in elections.21
In this cáse, appellees have not argued — presumably because they assumed that this Court’s many references to the requirement of proving an improper motive in equal protection cases are controlling in this new context — that the special features of Burke County’s at-large system have such an *641adverse impact on the minority’s opportunity to participate in the political process that this type of government deprives the minority of equal protection of the law. Nor have the appellants sought to identify legitimate local policies that might justify the use of such rules. As a result, this record does not provide an adequate basis for determining the validity of Burke County’s governmental structure -bn the basis of traditional objective standards.22
If the governmental structure were itself found to lack a legitimate justification, inquiry into subjective intent would clearly be unnecessary. As Justice Marshall stated in his dissent in Mobile: “Whatever may be the merits of applying motivational analysis to the allocation of constitutionally gratuitous benefits, that approach is completely misplaced where, as here, it is applied to the distribution of a constitutionally protected interest.” 446 U. S., at 121.23 Under the *642Court’s analysis, however, the characteristics of the particular form of government under attack are virtually irrelevant. Not only would the Court’s approach uphold an arbitrary— but not invidious — system that lacked independent justification, it would invalidate — if a discriminatory intent were proved — a local rule that would be perfectly acceptable absent a showing of invidious, intent. The Court’s standard applies not only to Burke County and to multimember districts, but to any other form of government as well.
Ill
Ever since I joined the Court, I have been concerned about the Court’s emphasis on subjective intent as a criterion for constitutional adjudication.24 Although that criterion is often *643regarded as a restraint on the exercise of judicial power, it may in fact provide judges with a tool for exercising power that otherwise would be confined to the legislature.25 My principal concern with the subjective-intent standard, however, is unrelated to the quantum of power it confers upon the judiciary. It is based on the quality of that power. For in the long run constitutional adjudication that is premised on a case-by-case appraisal of the subjective intent of local decisionmakers cannot possibly satisfy the requirement of impartial administration of the law that is embodied in the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
The facts of this case illustrate the ephemeral character of a constitutional standard that focuses on subjective intent. When the suit was filed in 1976, approximately 58 percent of the population of Burke County was black and approximately 42 percent was white. Because black citizens had been denied access to the political process — through means that have since been outlawed by the Voting Rights Act of 1965 — and because there had been insufficient time to enable the registration of black voters to overcome the history of past injustice, the majority of registered voters in the county were white. The at-large electoral system therefore served, as a result of the presence of bloc voting, to maintain white control of the local government. Whether it would have continued to do so would have depended on a mix of at least three different factors — the continuing increase in voter registration among blacks, the continuing exodus of black residents from the county, and the extent to which racial bloc voting continued to dominate local politics.
If those elected officials in control of the political machinery had formed the judgment that these factors created a likelihood that a bloc of black voters was about to achieve sufficient strength to elect an entirely new administration, they *644might have decided to abandon the at-large system and substitute five single-member districts with the boundary lines drawn to provide a white majority in three districts and a black majority in only two. Under the Court’s intent standard, such a change presumably would violate the Fourteenth Amendment. It is ironic that the remedy ordered by the District Court fits that pattern precisely.26
If votes continue to be cast on a racial basis, the judicial remedy virtually guarantees that whites will continue to control a majority of seats on the County Board. It is at least possible that white control of the political machinery has been frozen by judicial decree at a time when increased black voter registration might have led to a complete change of administration. Since the federal judge’s intent was unquestionably benign rather than invidious — and, unlike that of state officials, is presumably not subject in any event to the Court’s standard — that result has been accomplished without violating the Federal Constitution.
In the future, it is not inconceivable that the white officials who are likely to remain in power under the District Court’s plan will desire to perpetuate that system and to continue to control a majority of seats on the County Board. Under this Court’s standard, if some of those officials harbor such an intent for an “invidious” reason, the District Court’s plan will itself become unconstitutional. It is not clear whether the invidious intent would have to be shared by all three white *645commissioners, by merely a majority of two, or by simply one if he were influential. It is not clear whether the issue would be affected by the intent of the two black commissioners, who might fear that a return to an at-large system would undermine the certainty of two black seats.27 Of course, if the subjective intent of these officials were such as to mandate a change to a governmental structure that would permit black voters to elect an all-black commission — and if black voters did so — those black officials could not harbor an intent to maintain the system to keep whites from returning to power. In sum, as long as racial consciousness exists in Burke County, its governmental structure is subject to attack. Perhaps those more familiar than I with political maneuvering will be able to identify with greater accuracy and reliability those subjective intentions that are legitimate and those that are not. Because judges may not possess such expertise, however, I am afraid the Court is planting seeds that may produce an unexpected harvest.
The costs and the doubts associated with litigating questions of motive, which are often significant in routine trials, will be especially so in cases involving the “motives” of legislative bodies.28 Often there will be no evidence that the gov*646ernmental system was adopted for a discriminatory reason.29 The reform movement in municipal government, see n. 19, supra, or an attempt to comply with the strictures of Reynolds v. Sims, 377 U. S. 533, may account for the enactment of *647countless at-large systems. In such a case the question becomes whether the system was maintained for a discriminatory purpose. Whose intentions control? Obviously not the voters, although they may be most responsible for the attitudes and actions of local government.30 Assuming that it is the intentions of the “state actors” that is critical, how will their mental processes be discovered? Must a specific proposal for change be defeated? What if different motives are held by different legislators or, indeed, by a single official? Is a selfish desire to stay in office sufficient to justify a failure to change a governmental system?
The Court avoids these problems by failing to answer the very question that its standard asks. Presumably, according to the Court’s analysis, the Burke County governmental structure is unconstitutional because it was maintained at some point for an invidious purpose. Yet the Court scarcely identifies the manner in which changes to a county governmental structure are made. There is no reference to any unsuccessful attempt to replace the at-large system with single-member districts. It is incongruous that subjective intent is identified as the constitutional standard and yet the persons who allegedly harbored an improper intent are never identified or mentioned. Undoubtedly, the evidence relied on by the Court proves that racial prejudice has played an important role in the history of Burke County and has motivated many wrongful acts by various community leaders. But unless that evidence is sufficient to prove that every governmental action was motivated by a racial animus — and may be remedied by a federal court — the Court has failed under its own test to demonstrate that the governmental structure of Burke County was maintained for a discriminatory purpose.
Certainly governmental action should not be influenced by irrelevant considerations. I am not convinced, however, *648that the Constitution affords a right — and this is the only right the Court finds applicable in this case — to have every official decision made without the influence of considerations that are in some way “discriminatory.” Is the failure of a state legislature to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment invalid if a federal judge concludes that a majority of the legislators harbored stereotypical views of the proper role of women in society? Is the establishment of a memorial for Jews slaughtered in World War II unconstitutional if civic leaders believe that their cause is more meritorious than that of victimized Palestinian refugees? Is the failure to adopt a state holiday for Martin Luther King, Jr., invalid if it is proved that state legislators believed that he does not deserve to be commemorated? Is the refusal to provide Medicaid funding for abortions unconstitutional if officials intend to discriminate against women who would abort a fetus?31
A rule that would invalidate all governmental action motivated by racial, ethnic, or political considerations is too broad. Moreover, in my opinion the Court is incorrect in assuming that the intent of elected officials is invidious when they are motivated by a desire to retain control of the local political machinery. For such an intent is surely characteris*649tic of politicians throughout the country. In implementing that sort of purpose, dominant majorities have used a wide variety of techniques to limit the political strength of aggressive minorities. In this case the minority is defined by racial characteristics, but minority groups seeking an effective political voice can, of course, be identified in many other ways. The Hasidic Jews in Kings County, N. Y. ,32 the Puerto Ricans in Chicago,33 the Spanish-speaking citizens in Dallas,34 the Bohemians in Cedar Rapids,35 the Federalists in Massachusetts,36 the Democrats in Indiana,37 and the Republicans in California38 have all been disadvantaged by deliberate political maneuvers by the dominant majority. As I have stated, a device that serves no purpose other than to exclude minority groups from effective political participation is unlawful under objective standards. But if a political majority’s intent to maintain control of a legitimate local government is sufficient to invalidate any electoral device that makes it more difficult for a minority group to elect candidates— regardless of the nature of the interest that gives the minority group cohesion — the Court is not just entering a “political thicket”; it is entering a vast wonderland of judicial review of political activity.
The obvious response to this suggestion is that this case involves a racial group and that governmental decisions that disadvantage such a group must be subject to special scrutiny under the Fourteenth Amendment. I therefore must *650consider whether the Court’s holding can legitimately be confined to political groups that are identified by racial characteristics.
IV
Governmental action that discriminates between individuals on the basis of their race is, at the very least, presumptively irrational.39 For an individual’s race is virtually always irrelevant to his right to enjoy the benefits and to share the responsibilities of citizenship in a democratic society. Persons of different races, like persons of different religious faiths and different political beliefs, are equal in the eyes of the law.
Groups of every character may associate together to achieve legitimate common goals. If they voluntarily identify themselves by a common interest in a specific issue, by a common ethnic heritage, by a common religious belief, or by their race, that characteristic assumes significance as the bond that gives the group cohesion and political strength. When referring to different kinds of political groups, this Court has consistently indicated that, to borrow Justice Brennan’s phrasing, the Equal Protection Clause does not make some groups of citizens more equal than others. See Zobel v. Williams, 457 U. S. 55, 71 (Brennan, J., concurring). Thus, the Court has considered challenges to discrimination based on “differences of color, race, nativity, religious opinions [or] political affiliations,” American Sugar Refining Co. v. Louisiana, 179 U. S. 89, 92; to redistricting plans that serve “to further racial or economic discrimination,” Whitcomb v. Chavis, 403 U. S. 124, 149; to biases “tending to favor particular political interests or geographic areas.” Abate v. Mundt, 403 U. S. 182, 187. Indeed, in its *651opinion today the Court recognizes that the practical impact of the electoral system at issue applies equally to any “distinct minority, whether it be a racial, ethnic, economic, or political group.” Ante, at 616.
A constitutional standard that gave special protection to political groups identified by racial characteristics would be inconsistent with the basic tenet of the Equal Protection Clause. Those groups are no more or no less able to pursue their interests in the political arena than are groups defined by other characteristics. Nor can it be said that racial alliances are so unrelated to political action that any electoral decision that is influenced by racial consciousness — as opposed to other forms of political consciousness — is inherently irrational. For it is the very political power of a racial or ethnic group that creates a danger that an entrenched majority will take action contrary to the group’s political interests. “The mere fact that a number of citizens share a common ethnic, racial, or religious background does not create the need for protection against gerrymandering. It is only when their common interests are strong enough to be manifested in political action that the need arises. Thus the characteristic of the group which creates the need for protection is its political character.” Cousins v. City Council of Chicago, 466 F. 2d 830, 852 (CA7 1972) (Stevens, J., dissenting), cert. denied, 409 U. S. 893. It would be unrealistic to distinguish racial groups from other political groups on the ground that race is an irrelevant factor in the political process.
Racial consciousness and racial association are not desirable features of our political system. We all look forward to the day when race is an irrelevant factor in the political process. In my opinion, however, that goal will best be achieved by eliminating the vestiges of discrimination that motivate disadvantaged racial and ethnic groups to vote as identifiable units. Whenever identifiable groups in our society are disadvantaged, they will share common political interests and tend to vote as a “bloc.” In this respect, racial groups are *652like other political groups. A permanent constitutional rule that treated them differently would, in my opinion, itself tend to perpetuate race as a feature distinct from all others; a trait that makes persons different in the eyes of the law. Such a rule would delay — rather than advance — the goal advocated by Justice Douglas:
“When racial or religious lines are drawn by the State, the multiracial, multireligious communities that our Constitution seeks to weld together as one become separatist; antagonisms that relate to race or to religion rather than to political issues are generated; communities seek not the best representative but the best racial or religious partisan. Since that system is at war with the democratic ideal, it should find no footing here.” Wright v. Rockefeller, 376 U. S. 52, 67 (dissenting opinion).
My conviction that all minority groups are equally entitled to constitutional protection against the misuse of the majority’s political power does not mean that I would abandon judicial review of such action. As I have written before, a gerrymander as grotesque as the boundaries condemned in Gomillion v. Lightfoot, 364 U. S. 339, is intolerable whether it fences out black voters, Republican voters, or Irish-Catholic voters. Mobile v. Bolden, 446 U. S., at 86 (opinion concurring in judgment). But if the standard the Court applies today extends to all types of minority groups, it is either so broad that virtually every political device is vulnerable or it is so undefined that federal judges can pick and choose almost at will among those that will be upheld and those that will be condemned.
There are valid reasons for concluding that certain minority groups — such as the black voters in Burke County, Georgia — should be given special protection from political oppression by the dominant majority. But those are reasons that justify the application of a legislative policy choice rather than a constitutional principle that cannot be confined to spe*653cial circumstances or to a temporary period in our history. Any suggestion that political groups in which black leadership predominates are in need of a permanent constitutional shield against the tactics of their political opponents underestimates the resourcefulness, the wisdom, and the demonstrated capacity of such leaders. I cannot accept the Court’s constitutional holding.40
I respectfully dissent.

 Certain vestiges of discrimination — although clearly not the most pressing problems facing black citizens today — are a haunting reminder of an all too recent period of our Nation’s history. The District Court found *632that a segregated laundromat is operated within a few blocks of the county courthouse; at the courthouse itself, faded paint over restroom doors does not entirely conceal the words “colored” and “white.”

 See Dowdell v. City of Apopka, 511 F. Supp. 1375 (MD Fla. 1981).

 42 U. S. C. § 2000e-2.

 Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U. S. 483.

 In Ms much criticized opinion announcing the judgment of the Court, Justice Frankfurter wrote:
“Nothing is clearer than that this controversy concerns matters that bring courts into immediate and active relations with party contests. From the determination of such issues this Court has traditionally held aloof. It is hostile to a democratic system to involve the judiciary in the politics of the people. And it is not less pernicious if such judicial intervention in an essentially political contest be dressed up in the abstract phrases of the law.
“Courts ought not to enter this political thicket. The remedy for unfairness in districting is to secure State legislatures that will apportion properly, or to invoke the ample powers of Congress. The Constitution has many commands that are not enforceable by courts because they clearly fall outside the conditions and purposes that circumscribe judicial action. Thus, ‘on Demand of the executive Authority,’ Art. IV, § 2, of a State it is the duty of a sister State to deliver up a fugitive from justice. But the fulfilment of this duty cannot be judicially enforced. Kentucky v. Dennison, 24 How. 66. The duty to see to it that the laws are faithfully executed cannot be brought under legal compulsion, Mississippi v. Johnson, 4 Wall. 475. Violation of the great guaranty of a republican form of government in States cannot be challenged in the courts. Pacific Telephone Co. v. Oregon, 223 U. S. 118. The Constitution has left the performance of many duties in our governmental scheme to depend on the fidelity of the executive and legislative action and, ultimately, on the vigilance of the people in exercising their political rights.” 328 U. S., at 553-554, 556.

 The districts ranged in population from 112,000 to 914,000 persons. Id., at 557.

 The Court stated that the “nonjusticiability of a political question is primarily a function of the separation of powers.” 369 U. S., at 210. It emphasized, however, that “the lack of satisfactory criteria for a judicial determination” was a dominant consideration in Coleman v. Miller, 307 U. S. 433, 454-455; that whether a foreign relations question is justiciable turns, in part, on “its susceptibility to judicial handling”; that in the presence of clearly definable criteria for decision “the political question barrier falls away”; and that “even in private litigation which directly implicates no feature of separation of powers, lack of judicially discoverable standards and the drive for even-handed application may impel reference to the political departments’ determination of dates of hostilities’ beginning and ending.” 369 U. S., at 210, 211, 214. Luther v. Borden, 7 How. 1, was distinguished, in part, because that case involved “the lack of criteria by which a court could determine which form of government was republican”; the Court stated that “the only significance that Luther could have for our immediate purposes is in its holding that the Guaranty Clause is not a repository of judicially manageable standards which a court could utilize in*635dependently in order to identify a State’s lawful government.” 369 U. S., at 222, 223. In concluding that the reapportionment question before it was justiciable, the Court emphasized that it would not be necessary “to enter upon policy determinations for which judicially manageable standards are lacking.” Id., at 226.

 The Court simply stated:
“Judicial standards under the Equal Protection Clause are well developed and familiar, and it has been open to courts since the enactment of the Fourteenth Amendment to determine, if on the particular facts they must, that a discrimination reflects no policy, but simply arbitrary and capricious action.” Ibid.

 Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections, 383 U. S. 663. The Court concluded that “a State violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment whenever it makes the affluence of the voter or payment of any fee an electoral standard. Voter qualifications have no relation to wealth nor to paying or not paying this or any other tax.” Id., at 666. “To introduce wealth or payment of a fee as a measure of a voter’s qualifications is to introduce a capricious or irrelevant factor.” Id., at 668. In dissent, Justice Black noted: “It should be pointed out at once that the Court’s decision is to no extent based on a finding that the Virginia law as written or as applied is being used as a device or mechanism to deny Negro citizens of Virginia the right to vote on account of their color.” Id., at 672.

 Storer v. Brown, 415 U. S. 724. The Court stated that, in determining the constitutionality of eligibility requirements for independent candi*636dates, the “inevitable question for judgment” is “could a reasonably diligent independent candidate be expected to satisfy the signature requirements, or will it be only rarely that the unaffiliated candidate will succeed in getting on the ballot?” Id., at 742. See Mandel v. Bradley, 432 U. S. 173, 177; id., at 181 (Stevens, J., dissenting). See also American Party of Texas v. White, 415 U. S. 767, 795.

 Dunn v. Blumstein, 405 U. S. 330; Carrington v. Rash, 380 U. S. 89.

 Kusper v. Pontikes, 414 U. S. 51.

 Lubin v. Panish, 415 U. S. 709; Bullock v. Carter, 405 U. S. 134.

 Williams v. Rhodes, 393 U. S. 23.

 The Court’s articulation of the applicable standard in this case is somewhat puzzling. It states that this case is subject to “the standard of proof generally applicable to Equal Protection Clause cases.” Ante, at 617. But later in the same paragraph, the Court indicates that its special requirement of a showing of discriminatory intent merely applies to equal protection cases “charging racial discrimination.” Ibid. The Court seems to imply that plaintiffs in equal protection cases charging racial discrimination must surmount a special hurdle in order to prevail. Yet the Court has unequivocally stated that a “racial classification, regardless of purported motivation, is presumptively invalid and can be upheld only upon an extraordinary justification.” Personnel Administrator of Mass. v. Feeney, 442 U. S. 256, 272.

 In the words of Chancellor Kent, the requirement of districting “was recommended by the wisdom and justice of giving, as far as possible, to the *638local subdivisions of the people of each state, a due influence in the choice of representatives, so as not to leave the aggregate minority of the people in a state, though approaching perhaps to a majority, to be wholly overpowered by the combined action of the numerical majority, without any voice whatever in the national councils.” 1 J. Kent, Commentaries on American Law *230-*231, n. (c) (12th ed. 1873). See also Mobile v. Bolden, 446 U. S. 55, 105, n. 3 (Marshall, J., dissenting); Whitcomb v. Chavis, 403 U. S. 124, 158-160.
The challenge to multimember or at-large districts is, of course, quite different from the challenge to the value of individual votes considered in Reynolds v. Sims, 377 U. S. 533. An at-large system is entirely consistent with the one-person, one-vote rule developed in that case. As Justice Stewart noted in Mobile, in considering the applicability of Reynolds and the eases that followed it:
“Those cases established that the Equal Protection Clause guarantees the right of each voter to ‘have his vote weighted equally with those of all other citizens.’ 377 U. S., at 576. The Court recognized that a voter’s right to ‘have an equally effective voice’ in the election of representatives is impaired where representation is not apportioned substantially on a population basis. In such cases, the votes of persons in more populous districts carry less weight than do those of persons in smaller districts. There can be, of course, no claim that the ‘one person, one vote’ principle has been violated in this case, because the city of Mobile' is a unitary electoral district and the Commission elections are conducted at large. It is therefore obvious that nobody’s vote has been ‘diluted’ in the sense in which that word was used in the Reynolds case.” 446 U. S., at 77-78 (plurality opinion).
See also id., at 83 (Stevens, J., concurring in judgment).

 This feature distinguishes Burke County’s at-large electoral system from the municipal commission form of government popularized by reformers shortly after the turn of the century and known as the Galveston Plan or the Des Moines Plan. See n. 19, infra.

 Other features of certain at-large electoral schemes that make it more difficult for a minority group to elect a favored candidate when bloc voting occurs — prohibitions against cumulative and incomplete voting — are not involved in this case. Prohibitions against cumulative or partial voting are generally inapplicable in electoral schemes involving numbered posts.

 “During its evolution as a progressive solution to municipal problems, the commission format was variously known as the Galveston plan, the Texas idea, and the Des Moines plan. Since Galveston invented the basic organization and Des Moines popularized the addition of related reform techniques, the new type of government is probably best described as the Galveston — Des Moines plan. So popular did the new idea become that towns could reap advertising benefits for being in the forefront of municipal innovation if they used the commission plan. Consequently, some cities boasted that they had the system, knowing full well that their charters had little resemblance to Galveston’s. But there were certain essentials necessary before a city could claim commission status. Benjamin DeWitt, an early historian of the progressive movement, explained:
“ ‘In every case, however, no matter how much charters may differ as to minor details, they have certain fundamental features in common. These fundamental features of commission charters are four:
“1. Authority and responsibility are centralized.
“2. The number of men in whom this authority and this responsibility are vested is small.
“3. These few men are elected from the city at large and not by wards or districts.
“4. Each man is at the head of a single department.’
“The most radical departure the new scheme made was the combination of legislative and executive functions in one body. The plan disregarded the federal model of separation of powers. Sitting together, the commis*640sion was a typical policy- and ordinance-making council; but, separately, each commissioner administered a specific department on a day-to-day basis. The original Galveston charter provided for a mayor-president plus commissioners of finance and revenue, waterworks and sewerage, streets and public property, and fire and police. Later commission cities followed a similar division of responsibility.” B. Rice, Progressive Cities: The Commission Government Movement in America, 1901-1920, pp. xiii-xiv (1977) (footnote omitted).

 It is noteworthy that these features apparently characterize many governmental units in jurisdictions that have been subjected to the strictures of the Voting Rights Act as the result of prior practices that excluded black citizens from the electoral process. See generally The Voting Rights Act: Unfulfilled Goals, A Report of the United States Commission on Civil Rights 38-50 (1981).

 No group has a right to proportional representation. See Mobile v. Bolden, 446 U. S., at 75-76 (plurality opinion); id., at 122 (Marshall, J., dissenting). But in a representative democracy, meaningful participation by minority groups in the electoral process is essential to ensure that representative bodies are responsive to the entire electorate. For this reason, a challenged electoral procedure may not be justified solely on the ground that it serves to reduce the ability of a minority group to participate effectively in the electoral process.

 The record nevertheless does indicate that the validity of the at-large system itself need not be decided in this case. For it is apparent that elimination of the majority runoff requirement and the numbered posts would enable a well-organized minority to elect one or two candidates to the County Board. That consequence could be achieved without replacing the at-large system itself with five single-member districts. In other words, minority access to the political process could be effected by invalidating specific rules that impede that access and without changing the basic structure of the local governmental unit. See Mobile v. Bolden, supra, at 80 (Blackmun, J., concurring in result).

 It is worth repeating the statement of Professor Ely noted by Justice Marshall:
“The danger I see is the somewhat different one that the Court, in its new-found enthusiasm for motivation analysis, will seek to export it to fields where it has no business. It therefore cannot be emphasized too strongly that analysis of motivation is appropriate only to claims of improper discrimination in the distribution of goods that are constitutionally gratuitous (that is, benefits to which people are not entitled as a matter of substantive constitutional right). In such cases the covert employment of a principle of selection that could not constitutionally be employed overtly is equally unconstitutional. However, where what is denied is something to which *642the complainant has a substantive constitutional right — either because it is granted by the terms of the Constitution, or because it is essential to the effective functioning of a democratic government — the reasons it was denied are irrelevant. It may become important in court what justifications counsel for the state can articulate in support of its denial or non-provision, but the reasons that actually inspired the denial never can: To have a right to something is to have a claim on it irrespective of why it is denied. It would be a tragedy of the first order were the Court to expand its burgeoning awareness of the relevance of motivation into the thoroughly mistaken notion that a denial of a constitutional right does not count as such unless it was intentional.” Ely, The Centrality and Limits of Motivation Analysis, 15 San Diego L. Rev. 1155, 1160-1161 (1978) (emphasis in original) (footnotes omitted).

 In Washington v. Davis, 426 U. S. 229, I wrote:
“Frequently the most probative evidence of intent will be objective evidence of what actually happened rather than evidence describing the subjective state of mind of the actor. For normally the actor is presumed to have intended the natural consequences of his deeds. This is particularly true in the case of governmental action which is frequently the product of compromise, of collective decisionmaking, and of mixed motivation. It is unrealistic, on the one hand, to require the victim of alleged discrimination to uncover the actual subjective intent of the decisionmaker or, conversely, to invalidate otherwise legitimate action simply because an improper motive affected the'deliberation of a participant in the decisional process. A law conscripting clerics should not be invalidated because an atheist voted for it.” Id., at 253 (concurring opinion).

 See Miller, If “The Devil Himself Knows Not the Mind of Man,” How Possibly Can Judges Know the Motivation of Legislators?, 15 San Diego L. Rev. 1167, 1170 (1978).

 The following table shows a breakdown of the population of the districts in the plan selected by the District Court as to race and voting age:
Voting Age Black Voting Age White Voting Age
District Population Population (%) Population (%)
1 2,048 1,482 (72.4) 556 (27.6)
2 2,029 1,407 (69.3) 622 (30.7)
3 2,115 978 (46.2) 1,137 (53.8)
4 2,112 947 (44.6) 1,175 (55.4)
5 2,217 803 (36.2) 1,414 (63.8)
See Lodge v. Buxton, 639 F. 2d 1358, 1361, n. 4 (CA5 1981).

 In Wright v. Rockefeller, 376 U. S. 52, a group of minority voters in New York City challenged a districting scheme that placed most minority voters in one of four districts. They sought “a more even distribution of minority groups among the four congressional districts. ” Id., at 58. Congressman Adam Clayton Powell intervened in the lawsuit and argued strenuously “that the kind of districts for which appellants contended would be undesirable and, because based on race or place of origin, would themselves be unconstitutional.” Ibid.

 Professor Karst has strongly criticized motivational analysis on the ground that it is inadequate to protect black citizens from unconstitutional conduct:
“[E]ven though the proof will center on the effects of what officials have done, the ultimate issue will be posed in terms of the goodness or the evil of the officials’ hearts. Courts have long regarded such inquiries as unseemly, as the legislative investigation cases of the 1950’s attest. The *646principal concern here is not that tender judicial sensitivities may be bruised, but that a judge’s reluctance to challenge the purity of other officials’ motives may cause her to fail to recognize valid claims of racial discrimination even when the motives for governmental action are highly suspect. Because an individual’s behavior results from the interaction of a multitude of motives, and because racial attitudes often operate at the margin of consciousness, in any given case there almost certainly will be an opportunity for a governmental official to argue that his action was prompted by racially neutral considerations. When that argument is made, should we not expect the judge to give the official the benefit of the moral doubt? When the governmental action is the product of a group decision, will not that tendency toward generosity be heightened?” Karst, The Costs of Motive-Centered Inquiry, 15 San Diego L. Rev. 1163, 1164-1165 (1978) (footnote omitted).
To reject an examination into subjective intent is not to rule that the reasons for legislative action are irrelevant. “In my opinion, customary indicia of legislative intent provide an adequate basis for ascertaining the purpose that a law is intended to achieve. The formal proceedings of the legislature and its committees, the effect of the measure as evidenced by its text, the historical setting in which it was enacted, and the public acts and deeds of its sponsors and opponents, provide appropriate evidence of legislative purpose.” Cousins v. City Council of Chicago, 466 F. 2d 830, 856 (CA7 1972) (Stevens, J., dissenting), cert, denied, 409 U. S. 893. If a challenged law disadvantages minority citizens and its justifications — as evidenced by customary indicia of legislative intent — are insufficient to persuade a neutral observer that the law was enacted for legitimate, nondiscriminatory reasons, it is, in my opinion, invalid.

 As the Court of Appeals noted: “The general election laws in many jurisdictions were originally adopted at a time when Blacks had not received] their franchise. No one disputes that such laws were not adopted to achieve an end, the exclusion of Black voting, that was the status quo. Other states’ election laws, though adopted shortly after the enactment of the Fifteenth Amendment, are so old that whatever evidence of discriminatory intent may have existed, has long since disappeared. This ease falls within that category. The focus then becomes the existence of a discriminatory purpose for the maintenance of such a system.” 639 F. 2d, at 1363, n. 7.

 Apart from the lack of “state action,” the very purpose of the secret ballot is to protect the individual’s right to cast a vote without explaining to anyone for whom, or for what reason, the vote is cast.

 A stereotypical reaction to particular characteristics of a disfavored group cannot justify discriminatory legislation. See, e. g., Mathews v. Lucas, 427 U. S. 495, 520-521 (Stevens, J., dissenting). It is nevertheless important to remember that the First Amendment protects an individual’s right to entertain unsound and unpopular beliefs — including stereotypical beliefs about classes of persons — and to expound those beliefs publicly. There is a vast difference between rejecting an irrational belief as a justification for discriminatory legislation and concluding that neutral legislation is invalid because it was motivated by an irrational belief. Fresh air and open discussion are better cures for vicious prejudice than are secrecy and dissembling. No matter how firmly I might disagree with a legislator’s motivation in easting a biased vote, I not only must respect his right to form his own opinions, cf. Young v. American Mini Theatres, Inc., 427 U. S. 50, 63 (opinion of Stevens, J.), but also would prefer a candid explanation of those opinions to a litigation-oriented silence.

 See United Jewish Organization v. Carey, 430 U. S. 144.

 See Cousins v. City Council of Chicago, 466 F. 2d 830 (CA7 1972), cert. denied, 409 U. S. 893.

 See White v. Regester, 412 U. S. 755.

 See Rice, supra n. 19, at 78.

 The term “gerrymander” arose from an election district — that took the shape of a salamander — formed in Massachusetts by Governor Elbridge Gerry’s Jeffersonian or Democratic-Republican Party. The phrase was coined by Gerry’s opponents, the Federalists.

 See 39 Congressional Quarterly 758 (1981).

 See id., at 941.

 Since I do not understand the Court’s opinion to rely on an affirmative-action rationale, I put that entire subject to one side. If that were the rationale for the Court’s holding, however, there would be no need to inquire into subjective intent.

 The Court dpes not address the statutory question whether the at-large system violates §2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Neither the District Court nor the Court of Appeals considered this issue. Since appellees have been granted full relief by the Court, I express no opinion on their statutory claims.