Contact: David Gersten
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(WASHINGTON) Today the Center for Equal Opportunity issued the following statement:

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court issued its opinion in Hunt v. Cromartie, involving a lawsuit alleging that North Carolina's 12th Congressional District had been racially gerrymandered.  In its 5-4 opinion, a majority of the Court concluded that race had not been the "predominant factor" in drawing the district.  The four dissenting justices disagreed, finding that the trial panel's conclusion that race was in fact the predominant factor "was permissible, even if not compelled by the record."
 Some news stories and commentators have suggested that the majority opinion has given a green light to racial gerrymandering as the post-2000 census redistricting process begins.  But this is not true, and in many cases reflects the wishful thinking of those who have supported all along the use of race in drawing districts.
 The majority opinion did not, and did not claim to, change existing law.  Indeed, it would have been quite surprising if it had, since Justice O'Connor, who voted with the majority this time, has voted in many earlier cases against racial gerrymandering. 
 Nor, for that matter, had the dissenting justices always voted to affirm lower court findings of racial gerrymandering.  Indeed, in this same litigation, the four dissenters -- joined by Justice O'Connor -- voted in 1999 to overturn a lower-court conclusion that the 12th district had been unlawfully drawn.
 Instead, the split in this week's decision reflected a difference in opinion among the justices about whether there was sufficient evidence in this case to find that race had been the predominant factor in drawing the district's boundaries.  A majority found that, all in all, that was not a fair conclusion; four other justices found that, all in all, the lower court's decision was defensible.
 Thus, state and local officials remain on notice that racial gerrymandering is illegal and that, if they rely on race in deciding how to draw districts, they risk having those districts struck down as unconstitutional.
This is as it should be.  Racial gerrymandering relies on racial stereotyping, balkanizes Americans, and removes an important incentive for interracial coalition building.

The Center for Equal Opportunity is a nonprofit research and educational organization based in Washington, D.C.  It focuses on civil rights issues nationwide.