Branch v. Smith

Summary

The Court affirmed the injunction against Mississippi's state-court congressional redistricting plan because the plan had not obtained the preclearance required before a covered voting change could be enforced. It also upheld the District Court's decision to draw single-member districts rather than order statewide at-large elections, concluding that the single-member-district requirement applies when courts remedy a State's failure to redistrict and that at-large elections are a last-resort measure. Justice O'Connor, joined by Justice Thomas, would have required at-large elections until the State was redistricted; Justice Stevens, joined by Justices Souter and Breyer, would have treated the single-member-district provision as impliedly repealing the at-large provision; and Justice Kennedy concurred in the judgment and separately defended vacatur of the District Court's constitutional alternative holding.