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The North Carolina state court on Tuesday won a major victory for Democrats, saying the state's legislative district map was unconstitutional and paving the way for years of Republican gerrymandering in a traditionally competitive state.
In a 357-page decision, a panel of three judges ruled that the state's legislative districts violated North Carolina's constitution by "extreme partisan segregation." .
"The cards issued in 2017, as they were established, do not allow voters to freely choose their representative, but representatives choose voters based on sophisticated party sorting," states said. in power.
The court leaves it up to the republican state legislature to redraw the cards, but it gives them specific guidelines: the new cards must be redrawn by September 18 (within two weeks), lawmakers can not use the data to try. to gain a partisan advantage, and the process of redrawing must be public. The court will also appoint an arbitrator to review redrawn cards prior to their adoption, and if the legislature attempts to delay, the arbitrator may redraw the cards themselves.
"We are delighted," said Vox Daniel Jacobson, one of the plaintiffs' leading lawyers. "They can not try to delay, which has been one of their main tactics."
The fact that it is a decision of a state court, based on the state's constitution, is crucial. In June, the US Supreme Court ruled that federal courts could not cancel cards for reasons of gerrymandering, but state courts still had the option to do so. The Republican state leadership said it would not appeal the ruling, guaranteeing new cards in the state, according to a statement from Senate Chief Phil Berger.
This case could be a model for other states – such as Wisconsin, Maryland and Texas – that have extremely geriatric maps. This gives the North Carolina Democrats a greater chance of reclaiming at least one chamber of the state legislature. North Carolina governor Roy Cooper, governor of North Carolina, is also expected to be re-elected in 2020.
He "suggests that even though federal courts have moved away from partisan gerrymandering, there may be recourse in state courts and people should review their constitutions," said Michael Li, senior counsel at the Brennan Center for Justice. the NYU School of Law. "They did not write it in the US Constitution, but only in the state's provisions, that's what will isolate it."
The gerrymandered maps of North Carolina, explained
North Carolina has a long history of gerrymandering, and both parties have played a role. But the current cards were drawn by Republican lawmakers in 2016, after a case in the US Supreme Court ruled that the old maps drawn in 2011 constituted an unconstitutional racial gerrymander putting Black voters in the state at a disadvantage.
Republican-style gerrymandering in North Carolina was apparent in the last election results. In the 2018 elections, Republicans received less than half of the vote, but they still control 29 of the 50 Senate seats and 65 of the 120 seats in the House.
It's "it's not just something in a 50/50 state that occurs naturally," Li told Vox. "And that's not the case."
At the time of redrawing the cards in 2016, the Republicans made it clear that they were doing it to consolidate political power. The Republican state representative, Dave Lewis, has publicly acknowledged it during the 2016 process.
"I suggest we draw the cards to give a partisan advantage to 10 Republicans and three Democrats, because I do not think it's possible to draw a card with 11 Republicans and two Democrats," Lewis said at of a hearing before the House of Representatives.
Recently discovered cases have shown that GOP strategist Tom Hofeller, who died in 2018, drew maps of the North Carolina Republican Party headquarters using the results of previous elections to "build district boundaries for the benefit of Republicans." ", says the judgment.
Gerrymandering has strengthened the power of Republicans
When the Democrats managed to elect Roy Cooper at the Governor's Palace in 2016 – one of the few positives for the Democrats in a year dominated by Donald Trump and the Republican victories – their victory was marred by the republican state legislature.
Less than 48 hours after Cooper's victory, the Republican-controlled legislature passed a series of bills that prevented Cooper from making key appointments to Cabinet without their approval, drastically reducing the size of Cooper's administration and changed the election office so that Republicans could control in election years. They assured that the lawsuits had to go through the Republican-controlled court of appeal before the Democratic Supreme Court.
Cooper and the state democrats have been fighting these changes ever since. They have succeeded on some fronts; for example, the decision of the state election council was found to be unconstitutional. But Cooper's administration has been reduced to trying to incite the people of North Carolina to fight against an explicit encroachment on Republican power, while attempting to challenge the GOP-controlled legislature in court.
In 2018, other states, such as Michigan and Wisconsin, also elected new Democratic governors to face Republican legislative majorities rooted in gerrymandering.
Since these gerrymandered legislatures draw their own district lines, it may seem extremely difficult to dislodge them. But this case shows that state courts can still intervene and provide a way out.
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