Thomas, J., dissenting
two majority-minority congressional districts”—roughly proportional control. 1 App. 135 (emphasis added); see also id., at 314 (“Plaintiffs seek an order … ordering a congressional redistricting plan that includes two majority-Black congressional districts”).
Remarkably, the majority fails to acknowledge that two minority-controlled districts would mean proportionality, or even that black Alabamians are about two-sevenths of the State. Yet that context is critical to the issues before us, not least because it explains the extent of the racial sorting the plaintiffs’ goal would require. “[A]s a matter of mathematics,” single-member districting “tends to deal out representation far short of proportionality to virtually all minorities, from environmentalists in Alaska to Republicans in Massachusetts.” M. Duchin & D. Spencer, Models, Race, and the Law, 130 Yale L. J. Forum 744, 752 (2021) (Duchin & Spencer). As such, creating two majority-black districts would require Alabama to aggressively “sort voters on the basis of race.” Wisconsin Legislature, 595 U. S., at ___ (slip op., at 2).
The plaintiffs’ 11 illustrative maps make that clear. All 11 maps refashion existing District 2 into a majority-black district while preserving the current black majority in District 7. They all follow the same approach: Starting with majority-black areas of populous Montgomery County, they
heart of urban Birmingham. See Supp. App. 207–208. Of the Jefferson County residents captured by the “finger,” 75.48% were black. Wesch, 785 F. Supp., at 1569. In the southeast, District 7 swallowed a jigsaw-shaped portion of Montgomery County, the residents of which were 80.18% black. Id., at 1575. Three years later, in Miller v. Johnson, 515 U. S. 900, 923–927 (1995), we rejected the “max-black” policy as unwarranted by §5 and inconsistent with the Constitution. But “much damage to the States’ congressional and legislative district maps had already been done,” including in Alabama. Alabama Legislative Black Caucus, 575 U. S., at 299 (Thomas, J., dissenting).
