A three judge panel issued the ruling on Thursday afternoon. This is the third time this year, after February’s ruling on Congressional Districts and and July’s ruling against the Wake County School Board and Board of Commissioner maps, that a federal court has ruled that a Republican-led NCGA redistricting violates the Equal Protection Clause.
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The judges said that 28 of the 120 state districts were unconstitutionally drawn using racial gerrymandering, but said that they did not find that there was any evidence of political motivation for the district lines, rather they said that the lines appear to be a part of an effort by legislators to fully comply with the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
Two districts that raised eyebrows on the court were House District 7 and House District 25. The district maps must be revised, it says.
The November elections are less than three months away.
The districts will need to be re-drawn before other elections in the future. That suggests changes in the shape of mountain legislative districts might be minimal, but there could be a chain reaction affecting mountain districts as changes are made elsewhere.
“We decline to order injunctive relief to require the state of North Carolina to postpone its 2016 general elections, as we believe such a remedy would cause significant and undue disruption to North Carolina’s election process and create considerable confusion, inconvenience, and uncertainty among voters, candidates, and election officials”. However, we are relieved for voters that the district court did not disrupt the current election that is already underway.
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“This is only the latest example of North Carolina Republicans illegally disenfranchising African-American voters through gerrymandering and voter suppression”, said Gerrick Brenner, executive director of Progress NC Action, a progressive group mostly aligned with Democrats.
