US Supreme Court denies NC Republicans’ appeal in redistricting case
The U.S. Supreme Court denied an appeal by GOP lawmakers Monday, ending the state legislature’s attempt to reinstate its leaders’ preferred political districts for North Carolina’s congressional elections.
For the 2022 elections, that means the state’s 14 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives will be chosen using districts drawn by outside experts, following court orders in the state’s nationally watched redistricting lawsuit.
“We’re pleased that the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the legislative defendants’ shameless attempt to impose their gerrymandered congressional map upon North Carolina,” said Bob Phillips, executive director of the redistricting reform group Common Cause NC, in a news release. “This is a welcome victory for the people of our state and our Constitution.”
State courts ruled that Republican lawmakers passed an unconstitutionally gerrymandered congressional map in late 2021, and that the replacement map they drew to replace it, after losing an initial round of legal challenges, was also unconstitutional.
Monday’s ruling locks in the courts’ version of the congressional map, which likely has seven safe Republican seats and six safe Democratic seats. That leaves one tossup seat, which includes southeast Raleigh and several southern Wake County suburbs, plus all of Johnston County and parts of Harnett and Wayne counties.
Republican Senate leader Phil Berger said in a news release Monday that he believes the experts who drew the map were “conflict-ridden” and he was disappointed in the ruling.
The ruling Monday split the court 6 to 3 with conservative justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch and Samuel Alito dissenting.
“Today’s move by the court reinforces that legislatures do not have a ‘free pass’ to violate protections against partisan gerrymandering when drawing districts that undeniably hurt voters,” Hilary Harris Klein, a lawyer who was involved in suing the legislature over the original maps for the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, said in a news release.
In their appeal, GOP lawmakers had argued that state courts should have zero authority over federal elections, and so should not be able to rule congressional districts unconstitutionally gerrymandered. Opponents including the N.C. State Board of Elections retorted that such a ruling would have widespread unintended consequences.
The justices who dissented in the case said they are eager for the court to take up that legal debate — although it’ll have to wait until a later date, now that this appeal has been denied.
“We will have to resolve this question sooner or later, and the sooner we do so, the better,” Alito wrote in the dissent.
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This story was originally published March 7, 2022 at 5:30 PM with the headline "US Supreme Court denies NC Republicans’ appeal in redistricting case."
