| Miller v. Johnson | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Argued April 19, 1995 Decided June 29, 1995 | |
| Full case name | Zell Miller v. Davida Johnson |
| Citations | 515U.S.900 (more) 115 S. Ct. 2475; 132L. Ed. 2d 762; 1995U.S. LEXIS 4462 |
| Case history | |
| Prior | On appeal from U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia. Together with No. 94-797, Abrams et al. v. Johnson et al., and No. 94-929, United States v. Johnson et al., also on appeal from the same court. |
| Questions presented | |
| Is racial gerrymandering of the congressional redistricting process a violation of the Equal Protection Clause? | |
| Holding | |
| Georgia's congressional redistricting plan violates the Equal Protection Clause. | |
| Court membership | |
| |
| Case opinions | |
| Majority | Kennedy, joined by Rehnquist, O'Connor, Scalia, Thomas |
| Concurrence | O'Connor |
| Dissent | Stevens |
| Dissent | Ginsburg, joined by Stevens, Breyer, Souter (except as to Part III-B) |
| Laws applied | |
| U.S. Const. amend. XIV | |
Miller v. Johnson, 515 U.S. 900 (1995), was aUnited States Supreme Court case concerning "affirmativegerrymandering/racial gerrymandering", where racial minority-majority electoral districts are created duringredistricting to increase minorityCongressional representation.
Only one of Georgia's ten congressional districts was primarily African American between 1980 and 1990. According to the 1990 census, Georgia's increase in population entitled the state to an eleventh congressional seat. That prompted Georgia's General Assembly to re-draw the state'scongressional districts. After theJustice Department denied several of the Assembly's proposed new districts, as the state's population was 27% African-American, but formed a majority in only one of the now 11 districts, the Assembly drew the 11th district to create a second majority-black district. However the district lacked any sort of organic structure, and was deemed a "geographic monstrosity" because it extended approximately 260 square miles from Atlanta to the Atlantic Ocean. The case was brought to court by white voters inthe Eleventh Congressional District of thestate ofGeorgia.
Is racial gerrymandering of the congressional redistricting process a violation of theEqual Protection Clause?
Justice Kennedy wrote the majority opinion for the Court. Ruling against the district, the Court declared the districtunconstitutional under theEqual Protection Clause of theFourteenth Amendment, according to the interpretation inShaw v. Reno (1993). The court noted that in some instances, "a reapportionment plan may be so highly irregular and bizarre in shape that it rationally cannot be understood as anything other than an effort to segregate voters based on race." CitingShaw v. Reno, the majority concluded that strict scrutiny is required whenever race is the "overriding, predominant force" in the redistricting process. JusticeSandra Day O'Connor wrote a concurrence, while JusticeRuth Bader Ginsburg wrote a dissent joined by JusticesJohn Paul Stevens,Stephen G. Breyer, andDavid H. Souter. Stevens wrote an additional, separate dissent joined by no other justice.[1][2]
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