ABSTRACT
The Supreme Court has interpreted "standard, practice, or procedure" to include any changes in a locale's electoral system. Political parties are the organizations created for the purpose of choosing candidates, mobilizing supporters, and conducting campaigns in order to win elections and to enact the values of their coalitions into law. One could write a history of American politics by studying efforts to extend the right to vote, or franchise. Because judges help to determine the ground rules of politics, decisions on the electoral process affect the acquisition and allocation of power in the most fundamental sense. In the first benign race-conscious districting case to reach the Supreme Court, the justices turned back a challenge to a New York plan that split a Hasidic Jewish community among several state legislative districts in order to increase black representation. Legislative districting to enhance the representation of racial minorities has also given rise to constitutional disputes.
