Louisiana v. Callais · ¶28

This Court first construed the amended version of § 2 in Thornburg v. Gingles, 478 U. S. 30 (1986). Gingles concerned a challenge to North Carolina's multimember districting scheme on the ground that it diluted the vote of black citizens. Id., at 34–36. Gingles was decided at a time when this Court often paid insufficient attention to the language of statutory provisions, and Justice Brennan's opinion for the Court followed this pattern. Instead of analyzing what the statute said, the opinion simply “quoted the text of amended § 2 and then jumped right to the Senate Judiciary Committee Report.” Brnovich, 594 U. S., at 667; see Gingles, 478 U. S., at 42–46. Relying heavily on that Report, the opinion set out three threshold requirements for proving a § 2 vote- dilution claim, plus a nonexhaustive list of factors to be considered in making a final decision as to whether the State had…

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