Federal court strikes down NC congressional district maps

[appal_jack]

RALEIGH, N.C. — Three federal judges on Friday threw out the congressional voting maps the Republican-led General Assembly drew five years ago, ruling that two districts were gerrymandered along racial lines.

The ruling throws the March 15 primary into chaos, as the judges ordered state lawmakers to redraw the maps within two weeks and not to hold any elections for U.S. House until the maps are in place. A special session of the legislature would have to be called to approve new maps, and they might have to pass federal muster again.

Mail-in absentee voting started last week, and more than 8,000 ballots have already been requested, according to the State Board of Elections. It was unclear late Friday how many ballots have already been filled out and sent back in.

The three-judge panel ruled that the 1st Congressional District, which spreads like an octopus across northeast North Carolina and has a tentacle that dips into Durham County, and the 12th Congressional District, which snakes along Interstate 85 between Greensboro and Charlotte, were drawn specifically so that the majority of voters in each were black.

"There is strong evidence that race was the only nonnegotiable criterion and that traditional redistricting principles were subordinated to race," 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Roger Gregory wrote for the court. "In fact, the overwhelming evidence in this case shows that a (black voting-age population) percentage floor, or a racial quota, was established in both CD 1 and CD 12. And, that floor could not be compromised."

Much more at

http://www.wral.com/federal-court-strikes-down-nc-congressional-district-maps/15325900/#re7wX83TmodO4ghp.99

including some great quotes from Moral Monday leader Rev. William Barber.

Good news for NC finally!

-app

[wildeyed]

1. Such great news!

"For years, partisan gerrymandering has led to costly litigation and deprived North Carolina voters of having a real choice and a voice in our elections," Bob Phillips, executive director of Common Cause North Carolina, said in a statement. "Fortunately, a growing number of citizens and leaders across the political spectrum agree that North Carolina should adopt an independent redistricting process."

I am ready to get my vote back!

[appal_jack]

3. Me too. The question is, "when?"

The discussions I have seen today indicate that only those two districts need to be redrawn. But of course, redrawing those two would affect the districts around them, which could affect other more distant districts. So I assume that much of the state will be at least minorly redrawn...

-app

[wildeyed]

5. Or that SCOTUS might push back

the date. Another thing I saw that was interesting, the same ruling , if applied to the state level districts, would require a bunch of those to be redrawn too. And that would REALLY be huge.

Time for non-partisan re-distiricting committees.

[Ford_Prefect]

2. They should have been thrown out 5 years ago when their design was so obviously biased.

This may result in pushing back the primary or force an additional one for congressional seats. The comment that there WILL be oversight is encouraging.

[appal_jack]

4. Indeed, encouraging. Let's keep our towels handy. nt

[appal_jack]

6. State Senator Jeff Jackson on the decision:

"Jeff - what just happened with the courts and gerrymandering in NC?"
Here's what happened:
Late last night, a federal district court struck down the 1st and 12th NC congressional districts as unlawfully gerrymandered and ordered them immediately redrawn. In short, the court said it was blatantly obvious that the folks who drew those districts used race as the dominant factor, which you can't do.

Unless a higher federal court quickly says otherwise, this means the General Assembly will be called back into an emergency session next week to pass a bill that redraws those districts.
But, of course, you can't simply redraw two districts without impacting all the surrounding districts, so this could impact the whole map.

While this ruling only deals with North Carolina's congressional seats - and not any General Assembly seats - there are other cases pending making the same argument about racially gerrymandered state house and state senate seats.

Republicans will appeal. The federal appellate court may choose to pause the lower court's order to redraw the districts while it hears the appeal, but this would bring any redraw very close to the March 15th primary.

As if we needed it, this is more evidence that North Carolina desperately needs independent redistricting. Politicians in both parties have proven themselves completely incapable of responsibly (and legally) wielding the power to draw district boundaries, which is ultimately the power to decide elections. The first bill I ever filed was to end gerrymandering, and lots of Republicans support the effort, to their credit. We can and must fix this broken piece of our democracy.

The source is his Facebook page, and he has it set to "Public," so I think it is OK to reproduce in full here.

-app