State Supreme Court Takes Aim at Partisan Gerrymander

Legislative News by Nelda Holder –

The ruling was straightforward.

The North Carolina Supreme Court’s 4-3 decision in Harper v. Hall, handed down on Friday, February 4, was that the congressional and legislative maps adopted last November by the NC General Assembly “are unconstitutional beyond a reasonable doubt under the free elections clause, the equal protection clause, the free speech clause, and the freedom of assembly clause of the North Carolina Constitution.”

And as a result, the boundaries assigned to the state’s 14 US Congressional districts and the state’s own legislative districts (50 Senate districts and 120 State House districts) will go through a new mapping session with results due by February 18. The new maps will then receive review by the original three-judge panel of judges from Wake County Superior Court which, in the purest of political twists, had first heard this case and had ruled unanimously in favor of keeping the original maps that are now labeled unconstitutional by the higher court. That court will have one week to decide on the new maps, with a decision due on February 23, bumping right into the February 24 opening date for candidate filing in the 2022 state primaries.

The order further instructs that “all necessary measures” be taken to ensure a state primary election on May 17, and all subsequent elections, “occur as scheduled using the remedial districting plans.” Ballot items including referenda that were to be voted on March 8 will now move to the May 17 election, with a municipal election date (where no second primary is required) adjusted to July 26.

At the heart of this case lies the outcome of the drawing of new political maps in the state based on population figures from the 2020 census. In a state fairly evenly divided between the two dominant political parties, the maps drawn in last fall’s redistricting sessions ostensibly established 10 GOP-dominant Congressional districts with the other four districts favoring Democrats—increasing a current 8-5 rate to an even more lopsided 10-4 domination of seats for the Republican Party.

These numbers were lopsided enough to have our state play a starring role in The Washington Post on Sunday, February 6, when the Editorial Board an anti-gerrymandering editorial. In the piece, North Carolina is said to illustrate one of the four “worst gerrymandering sins” (the other three being Illinois, Texas, and Alabama), with colorful maps to prove it. The Post’s conclusion: Look to independent commissions to draw fairer state districts, removing the task from the hands of politicians.

Meanwhile in this state, the newly announced districts were quickly met with several court challenges. The current Supreme Court ruling involves a consolidated challenge by voting rights groups NC League of Conservation Voters, the National Redistricting Foundation, and the NC Chapter of Common Cause, plus several individual voters. The suit charges “extreme gerrymandering” in the legislature’s redistricting maps. That runs counter to the three-judge Superior Court panel (two Republicans and one Democrat) in the case’s initial hearing, in which the maps were indeed found to be skewed for partisan advantage, but the judges did not agree that the state Constitution allowed them to interfere with legislative map-drawing.

In the subsequent Supreme Court appeal, the 4-3 vote happened along partisan lines—a glaring criterion since the Republican-dominated legislature returned the state’s superior and district judgeships to partisan ballot listings in 2018 by overriding a veto of HB 100 by Gov. Roy Cooper. And Republican Chief Justice Paul Newby contributed an eight-page dissent to the gerrymander decision, joined by Republican Justices Phil Berger, Jr. (son of Phil Berger, the Republican president pro tem of the NC General Assembly) and Tamara Barringer (a former state senator).

Hang on to your hats. This ruling and its fallout are of national import, and we’re in for some fierce debate. I’ve mentioned this before, but you also might want to roam around in the State Constitution. It’s a nice little history lesson.

Waking Up With Budget Hangovers

With a little more time to review the 628-page 2021 Appropriations Act (otherwise known as the state budget), some interesting little nuggets were begging for commentary. One of those is the clever folding into the budget of long-sought “Revisions to Outdoor Advertising Control Act.” This makes allowances for non-conforming signs (i.e., billboards) that were originally erected legally but no longer meet state standards for reasons of zoning, size, lighting, and spacing criteria. Word is that we can expect a legal battle over this one.

Some other budget items easy for the public to miss but certainly worth noting:

Achieving what would appear to be a long-term goal, the phasing out of the state’s corporate income tax found its way into the budget under Section 42.2(a), moving from 2.25% of the net income of all C Corporations doing business in the state in taxable year 2025 to 2% in 2026, 1% in 2028, and 0% after 2029.

Funding provisions to ensure each school district has at least one school psychologist.

A research grant program established through the North Carolina Collaboratory for use by the following constituent constituents of The University of North Carolina identified as Historically Minority-Serving Institutions: Elizabeth City State University, Fayetteville State University, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, North State University. The grants will include focus on the Collaboratory’s mission of facilitating research related to the environmental and economic components of the management of the state’s natural resources, and of new technologies for habitat, environmental, and water quality improvements and other areas of public health.

A study on the overall status of the coastal and marine fisheries regulated by the state, focusing on the following regulated species (including the health and extent of the habitats they require): bay scallop, blue crab, Eastern oyster, estuarine striped bass, hard clam, kingfishes, red drum, river herring, sheepshead, shrimp, Southern flounder, spotted seatrout, and striped mullet.

The establishment at NC State University of a Student Beekeeping Grant Program for 2021-2022 fiscal year to provide grants to create beekeeping programs for high school chapters of Future Farmers of America (FFA) located in this state. Grants may be used for the purchase of housing for honeybees, protective gear and other equipment necessary for the practice of beekeeping, and the requisite queens, honeybee packages, and nucleus colonies.

A Few “Staying Informed” References

Last month we promised a few references for “home use” in this column, in case you want to follow legislation and its content and effects online, or just want to know more about the state of North Carolina, its history, and how local governments work. Boiled down, these are some fundamental state-focused sites to check in with.

North Carolina General Assembly, www.ncleg.gov

Start here if you want to know about legislation and how it comes to pass. A well-managed and easy to navigate site, it offers access to all bill and action taking place with them; a rundown on members of the Legislature and how to contact them; a handy calendar for tracking committee meetings, full sessions, and opportunities for video or audio in particular meetings. Additionally, there are easy to digest explanations of how the Legislature works, access to current and past bills and laws, even a virtual tour of the Legislative Building.

Coates’ Canons, canons.sog.unc.edu

A blog created by the School of Government at UNC Chapel Hill, covering a “broad range of legal issues affecting local governments and other public agencies in North Carolina.” It is designed to serve as a “forum for discussion, and provide a lasting resource for those in government, as well as community groups and citizens across the state.” Blog categories include Board Structures and Board Member Powers & Authority; Constitutional Issues; Community & Economic Development; Elections; General Local Government; Open Government, and more.

NCpedia, www.ncpedia.org/about

An electronic extension of the glossy history brochures developed by the NC Department of Cultural Resources in the 1970s and ‘80s, provided in partnership by the State Library and NC LIVE. The many content partners include the Research Branch of the NC State Archives, the University of North Carolina Press, the NC Museum of History, and both the NC State and UNC libraries.

NC Budget & Tax Center, ncbudget.org

Newly spun off from the North Carolina Justice Center, the NC Budget & Tax Center is known for its straightforward and intelligible budgetary monitoring of the state’s needs and expenditures. Recent articles include a study of local job data in the state’s individual counties; labor market analysis for the state regarding pandemic recovery; predictions for the economic conditions of the state in 2022; and a regular NC labor market data report.

That should keep you busy until we meet again in March!

Nelda Holder is the author of The Thirteenth Juror – Ferguson: A Personal Look at the Grand Jury Transcripts.