Alito, J., dissenting
maps. See ante, at 22–25. Their conclusion, however, rests on a faulty view of what non-predominance means.
The plurality’s position seems to be that race does not predominate in the creation of a districting map so long as the map does not violate other traditional districting criteria such as compactness, contiguity, equally populated districts, minimizing county splits, etc. Ibid. But this conclusion is irreconcilable with our cases. In Miller, for instance, we acknowledged that the particular district at issue was not “shape[d] … bizarre[ly] on its face,” but we nonetheless held that race predominated because of the legislature’s “overriding desire to assign black populations” in a way that would create an additional “majority-black district.” 515 U. S., at 917.
Later cases drove home the point that conformity with traditional districting principles does not necessarily mean that a district was created without giving race a predominant role. In Cooper, we held that once it was shown that race was “ ‘the overriding reason’ ” for the selection of a particular map, “a further showing of ‘inconsistency between the enacted plan and traditional redistricting criteria’ is unnecessary to a finding of racial predominance.” 581 U. S., at 301, n. 3 (quoting Bethune-Hill, 580 U. S., at 190). We noted that the contrary argument was “foreclosed almost as soon as it was raised in this Court.” Cooper, 581 U. S., at 301, n. 3; see also Vera, 517 U. S., at 966 (plurality opinion) (race may still predominate even if “traditional districting principle[s] do correlate to some extent with the district’s layout”). “Traditional redistricting principles … are numerous and malleable. … By deploying those factors in various combinations and permutations, a [mapmaker] could construct a plethora of potential maps that look consistent with traditional, race-neutral principles.” Bethune-Hill, 580 U. S., at 190. Here, a plurality allows plaintiffs to do precisely what we warned against in Bethune-Hill.
The plurality’s analysis of predominance contravenes our
