North Carolina seeks delay to fix 2 congressional districts

The federal court that struck down two majority black congressional districts in North Carolina refused Tuesday to delay its order demanding that new boundaries be drawn in barely a week’s time. But federal judges in Friday’s ruling took careful note of the increase of the district’s black voting age population from 43.8 percent to 50.7 percent in the most recent move to redistrict.

Last week federal judges ordered lawmakers to redraw North Carolina’s 1st and 12th districts by February 19 and not to hold any elections for U.S. House until new maps are in place.

Justice John Paul Stevens, in his dissent, asked why it was “permissible to draw boundaries to provide adequate representation” for rural voters, union members, Hasidic Jews, Polish Americans and Republicans, but not for “members of the very minority group whose history in the United States gave birth to the Equal Protection Clause”.

“Our biggest hope is to ensure that the courts have a full picture of what this, practically, will do”, said Josh Lawson, general counsel for the North Carolina State Board of Elections.

They are asking for the delay because the state’s primaries are just five weeks away.

Some voters’ lawyers say millions of people had to cast ballots in racially gerrymandered districts in 2012 and 2014 and would suffer irreparable damage if they have to do so again.

N.C. Rep. Chuck McGrady, R-Henderson, said he doesn’t think the district court’s decision will gain traction, especially in light of the state’s legal challenge and the possibility of more to come. Both have become well versed in the state’s voting wars. “The harms to North Carolina are public harms”.

At the very least, the court’s opinion would require the state to redraw the two offending districts, a process that will necessarily have ripple effects into other nearby districts. “I have a hard time imagining the Supreme Court doing that”, said Vanderbilt University law professor Kareem Clayton. Both are represented by Democrats, with G.K. Butterfield in the 1st, and Alma Adams in the 12th. That map will be used this year for the Virginia elections.

“This Court finds that Congressional Districts 1 and 12 as drawn in the 2011 Congressional Redistricting Plan are unconstitutional”, Gregory wrote.

The court normally allows legislators to craft voting lines for political gain but not with overriding racial motivations.

The courts have long held that partisan gerrymandering is constitutional while racial gerrymandering is not.

“We oppose the maps because they aggressively segregate voters and undermine the ability of voters to form multiracial fusion coalitions to advance a meaningful multiracial society”, said Bob Hall of Democracy North Carolina, one of the plaintiffs along with the NAACP.

“We don’t know what the impacts of this decision will be yet, but for now I am concentrating on doing my job as the Congresswoman for the 12th District, and running a campaign on the basis of my strong record of doing what is right for North Carolina and my District”, she said.