Federal Judges Rule – NC Congressional Districts Unconstitutional

A three-judge panel ruled Monday that North Carolina’s congressional districts amount to an unconstitutional gerrymander, siding with plaintiffs Common Cause and the League of Women Voters of North Carolina, marking the latest federal ruling against the Republican-controlled legislature’s drawing of the state’s congressional districts first along racial and then partisan lines.

In January, the Federal Judge panel determined the gerrymandering amounted to a violation of the Constitution’s equal-protection clause and ordered the state to redraw the entire map before the midterm elections.

This is the first time in American history a court demanded the total overhaul of a state-drawn electoral map.

The U.S. Supreme Court, however, quickly intervened blocking the lower court ruling, ordering it to wait to reconsider the case until a similar case before the highest court was decided, making it seemingly impossible for the districts to be redrawn more fairly before the November election.
Once the Supreme Court had cleared the way, the judges for the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina, in their ruling, indicted an openness to taking extraordinary measures to ensuring fair elections in the state, as soon as November, despite the fact that the primaries have already concluded. “It may be possible for the State to conduct a general election using a constitutionally compliant districting plan without holding a primary election. Or, it may be viable for the State to conduct a primary election on November 6, 2018, using a constitutionally compliant congressional districting plan, and then conduct a general election sometime before the new Congress is seated in January 2019,” the federal judge panel wrote.