Gerrymandering

Governor Roy Cooper is calling state lawmakers into a special session to redraw election maps. The unexpected announcement comes with the political boundaries having been struck down in the courts as illegal racial gerrymanders.

The Supreme Court has upheld a lower court ruling that struck down 28 state House and Senate districts in North Carolina because they violated the rights of black voters. But the justices rejected the court's order to redraw the districts and hold a special election.

The U.S. Supreme Court has told North Carolina's top court to reconsider a redistricting lawsuit filed by Democrats and allies after the nation's highest court struck down congressional districts as racial gerrymanders.

The Republican-led General Assembly passed House Bill 239 Tuesday, a measure to reduce the size of the North Carolina Court of Appeals from 15 to 12 seats.

That would take away Democratic Governor Roy Cooper's chance to fill vacancies created by mandatory retirements and resignations.

The U.S. Supreme Court has temporarily halted special legislative elections in North Carolina.

A federal three-judge panel ruled last summer that 28 state legislative districts in North Carolina are unconstitutional. That ruling declared the seats illegal racial gerrymanders and ordered state lawmakers to redraw boundaries by March 15th, with special state elections to take place in November.

Federal judges have told the North Carolina legislature to redraw its own districts by mid-March to replace ones the court struck down and to hold a special election under redrawn maps in November 2017.

In a state where political advertisements dominate the airwaves for presidential, senate and gubernatorial races, very little focus has been given to the 13 congressional house races.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. District Court has ruled that North Carolina’s redistricting map for state house and senate members, redrawn in 2011 by the Republican-led General Assembly, are unconstitutional racial gerrymanders.

Judge James Wynn wrote the unanimous decision:

A three-judge panel of the Fourth U.S. Circuit State Court of Appeals has ruled that North Carolina's redistricting map for state house and senate members, redrawn in 2011 by the Republican-led General Assembly, is unconstitutional racial gerrymandering.

North Carolina lawmakers met a Friday deadline to complete a court-ordered rewrite of the state's congressional voting maps. They also postponed the congressional primary until June 7. 

The new plans will move forward after the U.S. Supreme Court late Friday declined Republican lawmakers' request to stay the lower court order. Here are some of the key takeaways from the redesign:

Why did the General Assembly re-draw the maps?

February 19 update:  Lawmakers gave final approval to the new maps on Friday.

North Carolina lawmakers are just steps away from rearranging the state’s congressional districts and eliminating runoff elections. The actions are at the behest of a federal court’s finding of unconstitutional racial gerrymandering in two of the state's congressional districts.

Republican legislative leaders proposed a new outline for North Carolina’s 13 congressional districts on Wednesday, moving two incumbents out of districts they represent and likely pushing the primary elections for congress past the scheduled March 15 date.

Lawmakers, responding to a federal court ruling that said they had racially gerrymandered some congressional districts in 2011 and ordering them to draw new ones, presented maps that would rearrange almost all of the state’s voting lines. The proposal would keep the delegation’s 10-3 Republican majority.

North Carolina Republican legislators said on Tuesday that they want to keep racial considerations out of consideration when drawing new congressional district lines for the state, even as they hope the U.S. Supreme Court will issue an order telling them they can continue using current voting maps.

A Republican-led special redistricting committee voted to draw maps using political party information from elections since 2008 -- but not voters’ race. They will use the criteria to ensure Republicans keep their 10 to 3 majority in the state’s congressional delegation.

The North Carolina Supreme Court has upheld the state’s congressional and legislative maps for a second time, ruling that Republican state lawmakers did not illegally consider race when they drew voting districts.

The high state court, divided along party lines in a 4-to-3 decision, found that Republican lawmakers used race as one of several factors in drawing the maps after they took control of the General Assembly in 2011.