strength. It bears emphasis, however, that had the Court in Vieth adopted a standard for adjudicating partisan gerrymandering claims, the standard likely would have been satisfied in this case. Appellees alleged that the House and Senate plans were the result of an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander. The District Court rejected that claim because it considered itself bound by the plurality opinion in Davis v. Bandemer, 478 U.S. 109 (1986), and appellees could not show that they had been "'essentially shut out of the political process.'" App. to Juris. Statement 86a (quoting Bandemer, 478 U.S., at 139). Appellees do not challenge that ruling, and it is not before us. But the District Court's detailed factual findings regarding appellees' equal protection claim confirm that an impermissible partisan gerrymander is visible to the judicial eye and subject to judicially manageable standards. Indeed, the District Court's findings make clear that appellees could satisfy either the standard endorsed by the Court in its racial gerrymandering cases or that advocated in Justice Powell's dissent in Bandemer, 478 U.S., at 173–185.[1]
Drawing district lines that have no neutral justification in order to place two incumbents of the opposite party in the same district is probative of the same impermissible intent as the "uncouth twenty-eight-sided figure" that defined the boundary of Tuskegee, Alabama, in Gomillion v. Lightfoot, 364 U.S. 339, 340 (1960), or the "dragon descending on Philadelphia from the west" that defined Pennsylvania's District 6 in Vieth, 541 U.S., at 340 (Stevens, J., dissenting) (internal quotation marks omitted). The record in this case, like the allegations in Gomillion and in Vieth, reinforce my conclusion that "the unavailability of judicially
- ↑ A tally of the votes in the State Senate elections shows that, although Republicans won a majority of votes statewide (991,108 Republican votes to 814,641 Democrat votes), Democrats won a majority of the State Senate seats (30 to 26). See 2002 Georgia Election Results, www.sos.state.ga.us/elections/election_results/2002_1105/senate.htm (as visited June 23, 2004, and available in Clerk of Court's case file). Thus, it appears that appellees also could state a partisan gerrymandering claim under Justice Breyer's indicia of unjustified entrenchment. See Viet v. Jubelirer, 541 U.S. 267, 366 (2004) (dissenting opinion) ("[a] the boundary drawing criteria depart radically from previous or traditional criteria; [b] the departure cannot be justified or explained other than by reference to an effort to obtain partisan political advantage; and [c] a majority party [i. e., party receiving majority of total votes in relevant election] has once failed to obtain a majority of the relevant seats in election using the challenged map").
