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"North Carolina Democrats could face better odds of winning more legislative seats and helping Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper thwart the GOP’s conservative agenda because of U.S. Supreme Court actions Monday in a case about racial bias in election districts drawn by Republicans.
In a one-sentence order, the justices upheld a lower court ruling that struck down 28 state House and Senate districts because they were illegal racial gerrymanders that violated the rights of black voters.
But voters may have to wait nearly 18 more months for the ruling to yield results, since the justices separately rejected an order by the same three-judge panel to hold special elections this fall in districts that must be redrawn by lawmakers. They wrote that the three judges should have done a better job evaluating whether moving up the schedule was warranted.
The lower court, “addressed the balance of equities in only the most cursory fashion,” the justices wrote in an unsigned opinion vacating the scheduling order. “We cannot have confidence that the court adequately grappled with the interests on both sides of the remedial question before us.”
The three-judge panel, however, could still order new districts in time for the regular cycle of elections that would end in November 2018.
The high court’s action follows last month’s ruling in which the justices struck down two North Carolina congressional districts — the 1st in the east and the 12th in the Piedmont — because they also diminished the voting strength of the state’s black residents. The legislature already redrew its congressional boundaries in February 2016 and used them in last November’s election.
The legislative districts were initially drawn in 2011 when Republicans controlled the legislature, as they do now. Civil rights groups and black voters challenged the districts, complaining that they packed too many black voters into some districts and made surrounding districts whiter and thus more likely to elect Republicans.
The maps have helped Republicans expand and retain majorities they initially won in the 2010 elections, giving the GOP control of both chambers simultaneously for the first time in 140 years. Republicans have used the advantage to pass right-leaning legislation to cut taxes, restrict abortion and create taxpayer-funded scholarships for children to attend private schools.
The lower court judges unanimously declared that GOP legislators had failed to justify creating so many districts with black voting-age populations above 50 percent.
Democrats need to capture three House seats or six Senate seats currently held by Republicans to eliminate the GOP’s veto-proof majorities and enhance Cooper’s power. He has vetoed four bills since taking office in January, and legislators overrode all of those vetoes."
The supermajority the GOP holds over the state assembly is absurd when you look at actual voting, hopefully the system will be made a little more fair thanks to this ruling.
The Republicans will state to the three judge panel that there will not be enough time to redraw the districts (since when you change the boundary to one, you inevitably change other boundaries. To the contrary, this is a much quicker and fairer solution that can be applied across the state.
Instead of leaving the district mapping up to the biased legislature (on both sides of the aisle), perhaps we should leverage our census data and apply the shortest-splitline method across the state. This essentially splits districts by population count and applies boundaries based on the shortest line to divide up the population evenly (does not take county, city, or geographical boundaries into any account other than the state border).
We use this method, we can avoid long and costly lawsuits that eventually cost the taxpayer money, and can use an unbiased source that neither party could argue against in terms of bias.
"North Carolina Democrats could face better odds of winning more legislative seats and helping Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper thwart the GOP’s conservative agenda because of U.S. Supreme Court actions Monday in a case about racial bias in election districts drawn by Republicans.
In a one-sentence order, the justices upheld a lower court ruling that struck down 28 state House and Senate districts because they were illegal racial gerrymanders that violated the rights of black voters.
But voters may have to wait nearly 18 more months for the ruling to yield results, since the justices separately rejected an order by the same three-judge panel to hold special elections this fall in districts that must be redrawn by lawmakers. They wrote that the three judges should have done a better job evaluating whether moving up the schedule was warranted.
The lower court, “addressed the balance of equities in only the most cursory fashion,” the justices wrote in an unsigned opinion vacating the scheduling order. “We cannot have confidence that the court adequately grappled with the interests on both sides of the remedial question before us.”
The three-judge panel, however, could still order new districts in time for the regular cycle of elections that would end in November 2018.
The high court’s action follows last month’s ruling in which the justices struck down two North Carolina congressional districts — the 1st in the east and the 12th in the Piedmont — because they also diminished the voting strength of the state’s black residents. The legislature already redrew its congressional boundaries in February 2016 and used them in last November’s election.
The legislative districts were initially drawn in 2011 when Republicans controlled the legislature, as they do now. Civil rights groups and black voters challenged the districts, complaining that they packed too many black voters into some districts and made surrounding districts whiter and thus more likely to elect Republicans.
The maps have helped Republicans expand and retain majorities they initially won in the 2010 elections, giving the GOP control of both chambers simultaneously for the first time in 140 years. Republicans have used the advantage to pass right-leaning legislation to cut taxes, restrict abortion and create taxpayer-funded scholarships for children to attend private schools.
The lower court judges unanimously declared that GOP legislators had failed to justify creating so many districts with black voting-age populations above 50 percent.
Democrats need to capture three House seats or six Senate seats currently held by Republicans to eliminate the GOP’s veto-proof majorities and enhance Cooper’s power. He has vetoed four bills since taking office in January, and legislators overrode all of those vetoes."
Sucks that the special election that was earlier reported to be happening this November is off the table; but glad to see it made it all the way to SCOTUS and that the decision made was the correct one. NCGA has been out of control for the past 6 years.
Honest question, what's to stop them from dragging their feet and doing this again? We have to have an election at some point. And even if it goes to the courts/SC, they can get a couple of elections out of the maps.
I am curious as well about that. What if they simply keep drawing bad maps, knowing they'll lose in court, but perpetually moving the deadline forward when to switch so that they can keep using them for elections? Is there any recourse for that? Because it seems like that's what's happening.
Honest question, what's to stop them from dragging their feet and doing this again? We have to have an election at some point. And even if it goes to the courts/SC, they can get a couple of elections out of the maps.
Please don't give them any ideas.
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