Bush v. Vera

Bush v. Vera
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued December 5, 1995 Decided June 13, 1996
Full case name	George W. Bush, Governor of Texas, et al., Appellants v. Vera, et al.; Lawson, et al. v. Vera
Citations	517 U.S. 952 (more) 116 S. Ct. 1941; 135 L. Ed. 2d 248
Case history
Prior	Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas, sub nom. Vera v. Richards, 861 F. Supp. 1304 (1994)
Subsequent	980 F. Supp. 254
Holding
In its 1991 congressional redistricting scheme, Texas subordinated race-neutral, traditional districting considerations to racial factors. This subjected the racially discriminatory plan to strict scrutiny under the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and the districting plan was deemed not narrowly tailored to meet a compelling state interest.
Court membership
Chief Justice William Rehnquist Associate Justices John P. Stevens · Sandra Day O'Connor Antonin Scalia · Anthony Kennedy David Souter · Clarence Thomas Ruth Bader Ginsburg · Stephen Breyer
Case opinions
Plurality	O'Connor, joined by Rehnquist, Kennedy
Concurrence	O'Connor
Concurrence	Kennedy
Concurrence	Thomas (in judgment), joined by Scalia
Dissent	Stevens, joined by Ginsburg, Breyer
Dissent	Souter, joined by Ginsburg, Breyer
Laws applied
U.S. Const. amend. XIV, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, 42 U.S.C. § 1973; Texas Acts 1991, 72nd Leg., 2nd C.S., Chap. 7

Bush v. Vera, 517 U.S. 952 (1996), is a United States Supreme Court case concerning racial gerrymandering, where racial minority majority-electoral districts were created during Texas' 1990 redistricting to increase minority Congressional representation. The Supreme Court, in a plurality opinion, held that race was the predominant factor in the creation of the districts and that under a strict scrutiny standard the three districts were not narrowly tailored to further a compelling governmental interest.