congressional maps
Racial gerrymandering returns to U.S. Supreme Court. This time it’s South Carolina’s fight.
Civil rights groups will be closely watching the U.S. Supreme Court next Wednesday when the justices hear a challenge to South Carolina’s congressional redistricting map. In Alexander v. SC State Conference of the NAACP, the plaintiffs contend South Carolina’s legislature adopted a racially gerrymandered congressional map last year, moving hundreds of thousands of South Carolinians […]
State Supreme Court revisits redistricting rulings it issued in just months ago
A Democratic court majority struck down maps as unconstitutional partisan gerrymanders, but a new GOP majority has been asked to do an about-face. State Republican legislators Tuesday brought their argument that courts cannot bar partisan redistricting to a friendlier state Supreme Court than the one that ruled against them last year.
Judges replace the NC congressional redistricting plan. The state Supreme Court denies all requests for a stay.
A panel of Superior Court judges on Wednesday replaced a new map for North Carolina’s congressional districts with their own, while deciding that the state House and Senate plans the legislature adopted last week meet constitutional standards set by the state Supreme Court. The trial court decision on this second set of redistricting plans may not be the last word. Republican architects of the district plans and their challengers are all appealing.
“Gerrymandering at its worst”: Public commenters pan proposed electoral maps
Voters ask redistricting mapmakers to respect community ties One of the proposed maps for new congressional districts lumps parts of Wake County with North Topsail Beach, 135 miles away, in Onslow County. That same map creates a district by taking slivers of Triad counties in the Piedmont – the western third of Guilford and the southern quarter of Forsyth – and extends it west, with a little, crooked finger...
Redistricting public hearings fall short in accommodating public input, advocates say
Starting this evening, lawmakers will travel to 13 locations throughout the state to host public hearings on redistricting, which will redefine the boundaries of congressional and legislative districts for up to a decade to come, including a new, 14th congressional district. However, it appears that members of the public will not be able to participate […]
The best editorials of the weekend
The Triad newspaper twins (the Greensboro News & Record and Winston-Salem Journal) featured almost identical editorials over the weekend about the state’s newly-approve congressional map. Their shared assessment: the map might be a little better than the old one, but it’s still fatally flawed. As the Journal put it on Saturday: The redrawn districts are […]
BREAKING: Court stops Congressional candidate filing pending gerrymandering litigation
A North Carolina court has enjoined Congressional candidate filing — set to begin in just over a week — pending ongoing partisan gerrymandering litigation. Lawmakers enacted a new Congressional map last week after the court ruled plaintiffs in Harper v. Lewis were likely to prevail on their partisan gerrymandering challenge of the prior districts. A […]
Brennan Center gives glimpse of possible SCOTUS partisan gerrymandering outcomes
As court watchers and voting rights organizations alike eagerly await a partisan gerrymandering decision from the U.S. Supreme Court, the Brennan Center for Justice is offering a preview of what could happen. Justices heard arguments in March addressing three challenges to congressional maps — two to the 2016 GOP-drawn map in North Carolina and one […]
Court considering releasing all or some of dead GOP mapmaker’s data to parties in lawsuit
Attorneys in a state redistricting case Tuesday argued over whether or not the GOP’s top, now deceased mapmaker’s personal and sensitive documents should be inspected by everyone or filtered out altogether. More details were also brought to light during the hearing about how the late Thomas Hofeller’s daughter came to produce his hard drives and […]
National columnist: NC fall congressional elections poised to become a “logistical nightmare”
It’s always worth reading Esquire political columnist Charles P. Pierce even when he isn’t writing about his former home state of North Carolina. The man could make you care about an election for dogcatcher and have you in stitches at the same time. Today’s column, however, is entitled “The North Carolina Primaries Just Became a […]
Supreme Court will not expedite NC partisan gerrymandering case
The U.S. Supreme Court will not expedite North Carolina’s partisan gerrymandering case, which means voters will likely participate in the upcoming election under the map that a federal court ruled unconstitutional. The high court already granted lawmakers’ request to block the lower court’s order forcing them to redraw the congressional map before this year’s election. […]
SCOTUS denies stay in Pennsylvania partisan gerrymandering case
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito denied a stay request Monday in a Pennsylvania partisan gerrymandering case, which means lawmakers there have 10 days to redraw congressional maps. The denial comes less than a month after the court stayed an order requiring North Carolina lawmakers to redraw congressional maps after a lower court found they […]