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The General Assembly had "a partisan intention to create legislative constituencies perpetuating a Republican-controlled general assembly," said the court, stating that "in the most unusual electoral scenarios, the Republican party will control the majority of the two houses of the Republic. Parliament, General Assembly. "
The court also demanded that new district maps be established for the 2020 election, taking into account some specific considerations.
The battle in North Carolina has shown just how much the fight against partisan gerrymandering was going from federal courts to states.
The US Supreme Court ruled in June that this would not prevent districts from being designated in a way that favors the ruling party.
However, Democrats have now won two major state-level victories: Last year, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that the state's congressional districts had been drawn from the state. 39 a way that violated the Pennsylvania Constitution. In North Carolina, a senior Republican lawmaker told local reporters that the government would not appeal the state court's decision against the districts of the House and Senate.
The result is an election in 2020 in which North Carolina – already a rotating state in presidential elections – will likely see control of the entire state government, with the creation of new districts and re-election of Democratic Governor Roy Cooper. .
Bob Phillips – the executive director of the common cause advocacy group North Carolina, one of the plaintiffs in the case – applauded the court's ruling.
"The court has banned the use of a majority of districts," Phillips said. "We are delighted that the voters of North Carolina have finally the opportunity, in the election of 2020, to vote for state lawmakers under fair cards."
Electoral law expert Rick Hasen, of the University of California at Irvine, called the decision "a big step forward that would make the Republican-led North Carolina General Assembly." in a difficult position. "
"Since this is decided by the constitutional law of the states, it would be very difficult to find a federal case to bring the case before the US Supreme Court for it to be overturned," she said. he added.
Although the US Supreme Court has recently refused to intervene to decide a separate federal card challenge in the state, the North Carolina court has observed that the provisions of the Constitution of the state "could provide standards and guidelines to be applied by state courts".
The Democratic Party of North Carolina, registered Democratic voters and Common Cause filed suit last year. They claimed that the North Carolina Republican Cartographer had manipulated the boundaries of the districts to minimize the representation rights of Democratic voters.
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