Rogers v. Lodge

There were three dissenters in the case. Justice Powell, joined by Justice Rehnquist, dissented on the grounds that the objective proof in the case did not establish discriminatory intent on the part of Burke County. Powell wrote:

In the absence of proof of discrimination by reliance on . . . objective factors . . . I would hold that the factors cited by the Court of Appeals are too attenuated as a matter of law to support an inference of discriminatory intent.

Justice Stevens dissented on similar grounds. He had misgivings about the advisability of divining discriminatory intent in the minds of the at-large system's architects. He wrote:

I do not believe that the subjective intent of the persons who adopted the system in 1911, or the intent of those who have since declined to change it, can determine its constitutionality.