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Disentangling "Cohesiveness": The Misapplication Of § 2 In Vote Dilution Cases, Eliot Michael Held

Eliot Held

In Thornburg v. Gingles, the Supreme Court ruled that a state’s refusal to create a proposed majority-minority voting district could in some circumstances violate § 2 of the Voting Rights Act. A proponent of the proposed district must show that the minority population of the proposed district is “politically cohesive” and would constitute a majority of the proposed district’s voting-age population, and that the non-minority (Caucasian) population of the challenged district traditionally votes as a bloc such that it is usually able to elect a candidate not preferred by the minority population. This Article proposes that a proper reading of …