Page:United States Reports 502 OCT. TERM 1991.pdf/668

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PRESLEY v. ETOWAH COUNTY COMM’N Stevens, J., dissenting

legislative history we rehearsed in South Carolina v. Katzenbach was cited to demonstrate Congress’ concern for the protection of voting rights. Neither the appellants nor the United States has pointed to anything we said there or in the statutes reenacting the Voting Rights Act to suggest that Congress meant other than what it said when it made § 5 applicable to changes “with respect to voting” rather than, say, changes “with respect to governance.” If federalism is to operate as a practical system of governance and not a mere poetic ideal, the States must be allowed both predictability and efficiency in structuring their governments. Constant minor adjustments in the allocation of power among state and local officials serve this elemental purpose. Covered changes must bear a direct relation to voting itself. That direct relation is absent in both cases now before us. The changes in Etowah and Russell Counties affected only the allocation of power among governmental officials. They had no impact on the substantive question whether a particular office would be elective or the procedural question how an election would be conducted. Neither change involves a new “voting qualification or prerequisite to voting, or standard, practice, or procedure with respect to voting.” 42 U. S. C. § 1973c. The judgment of the District Court is affirmed. It is so ordered. Justice Stevens, with whom Justice White and Justice Blackmun join, dissenting. In 1986, an important event occurred in each of two Alabama counties with long histories of white-dominated political processes. In Etowah County, a black commissioner was elected to the county commission for the first time in recent history, and in Russell County, two black commissioners were elected to the county commission for the first time in