Page:United States Reports 502 OCT. TERM 1991.pdf/663

 502us2$30I 09-08-95 14:43:51 PAGES OPINPGT

Cite as: 502 U. S. 491 (1992)

505

Opinion of the Court

required to obtain preclearance. The amount of funds available to an elected official has a profound effect on the power exercised. A vote for an ill-funded official is less valuable than a vote for a well-funded one. No doubt in recognition of the unacceptable consequences of their views, appellants take the position that while “some budget changes may affect the right to vote and, under particular circumstances, would be subject to preclearance,” most budget changes would not. Postargument Letter from Counsel for Appellants, Nov. 13, 1991 (available in Clerk of Court’s case file). Under their interpretation of § 5, however, appellants fail to give any workable standard to determine when preclearance is required. And were we to acknowledge that a budget adjustment is a voting change in even some instances, the likely consequence is that every budget change would be covered, for it is well settled that every voting change with a “potential for discrimination” must be precleared. Dougherty County Bd. of Ed. v. White, 439 U. S., at 42. Confronting this difficulty, at oral argument the United States suggested that we draw an arbitrary line distinguishing between budget changes and other changes, Tr. of Oral Arg. 21–23. There is no principled basis for the distinction, and it would be a marked departure from the statutory category of voting. If a diminution or increase in an elected official’s powers is a change with respect to voting, then whether it is accomplished through an enactment or a budget shift should not matter. Even if we were willing to draw an unprincipled line excluding budgetary changes but not other changes in an elected official’s decisionmaking authority, the result would expand the coverage of § 5 well beyond the statutory language and the intention of Congress. Under the view advanced by appellants and the United States, every time a state legislature acts to diminish or increase the power of local officials, preclearance would be required. Governmental action decreasing the power of local