North Carolina’s Supreme Court Blocks GOP Redistricting Maps
In a 4-3 decision, the state’s high court ordered that maps be redrawn
North Carolina lawmakers during an October hearing on the legislative redistricting maps.PHOTO: TRAVIS LONG/ASSOCIATED PRESS
By
Alexa Corse Follow
Updated Feb. 4, 2022 8:39 pm ET
North Carolina’s Supreme Court struck down the voting maps enacted by the Republican-controlled state legislature, saying they violated the state’s constitution, in a closely watched case with implications for the balance of political power in the state’s legislature and congressional delegation.
In a divided ruling, the court said that the congressional and state legislative districts as drawn by Republicans are unlawful partisan gerrymanders that violate measures of the North Carolina constitution. The court told the state legislature to draw new maps.
“Achieving partisan advantage incommensurate with a political party’s level of statewide voter support is neither a compelling nor a legitimate governmental interest,” the court’s majority said in the order.
The ruling from North Carolina’s high court, where Democrats have a 4-3 majority, is the latest development among a number of redistricting-related lawsuits playing out around the country in light of the 2020 census.
The court’s three Republican justices dissented, writing that the ruling “violates the separation of powers by effectively placing responsibility for redistricting with the judicial branch, not the legislative branch as expressly provided in our constitution.”
Advocacy groups and voters filed two lawsuits alleging that maps adopted by the Republican-controlled state legislature unlawfully entrenched a partisan advantage for the GOP. The cases were consolidated for trial in a lower court.
In January, a panel of three judges in Wake County Superior Court upheld North Carolina’s maps, rejecting claims that they were illegally gerrymandered for partisan advantage. The panel said there was evidence that the voting maps were gerrymandered to help Republicans but said it had no authority to interfere.
“Redistricting is a political process that has serious political consequences,” the panel wrote. “It is one of the purest political questions which the legislature alone is allowed to answer. Were we as a court to insert ourselves in the manner requested, we would be usurping the political power and prerogatives of an equal branch of government.”
Republican state lawmakers have said they led the most transparent map-drawing process in the state’s history. The Republican-controlled state legislature said it had prohibited the use of partisan or racial data when drawing the new maps.
“Plaintiffs ask this Court to cease acting as a court of law and begin acting as a political body,’’ the Republican state lawmakers said in a brief to the state’s high court. “The North Carolina Constitution has no standard for distinguishing good political choices from bad ones.”
North Carolina currently has eight Republican and five Democratic members of Congress. The state is gaining one House seat because of population growth reflected in the 2020 census.
Under the Republican-drawn maps, the GOP would have had 10 safe seats out of 14 total seats, according to the groups who sued. Republicans also were likely to keep their majorities in the state legislature under the new map, the plaintiffs said.
The nonpartisan Princeton Gerrymandering Project rated North Carolina’s new maps an “F” for partisan fairness, saying the maps gave Republicans a significant advantage.
The North Carolina Supreme Court already had postponed the state’s March primary until May to allow time to resolve the legal battle. Republicans had approved a bill delaying the primary by another three weeks to June, but Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper vetoed that proposal in January.
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