North Carolina judges throw cards at cards

A group of three judges in North Carolina threw out the state's Legislative District on Tuesday, saying the cards were a partisan and extreme gerrymander that violated the state's constitution.

The partisan intent of lawmakers to draw the cards, the "surgical precision" with which they were executed, and the clear advantage that the cards gave to the Republicans violated the state's constitutional protections in respect of the police. Free elections, free speech and meeting, and equal protection of the law, the judges wrote in a 357-page decision that reads as a scathing sentence of partisan gerrymandering.

"The issued cards of 2017, as they were drawn, do not allow voters to freely choose their representative, but the representatives choose the voters on the basis of a sophisticated supporter sort," wrote the judges. "This is not the free will of the people that is checked through extreme partisan manipulation, it is rather the carefully crafted will of the card shooter predominating."

The decision is a huge win for the voting advocates, who say that gerrymandering – the process of drawing district cards to favor a party or politician – undermines democracy by allowing lawmakers to choose voters. Although racial gerrymandering is illegal, the Supreme Court refused to consider partisan gerrymandering earlier this summer.

In North Carolina, supporters gerrymandering have presented "political issues out of the reach of federal courts," the Supreme Court said in June, leaving lawyers focused on gerrymandering in state courts. The lawsuit was filed by Common Cause, a monitoring group announced Tuesday 's decision as part of a "growing list of wins in the fight against gerrymandering nationwide" in a statement.

The court must immediately start drawing new cards, said the court, demanding that they be set according to criteria such as population, contiguity and county boundaries. They must be fired without "partisan considerations and data of the election results," wrote the judges, who made it clear, to a marked difference from the closed-door process that allowed them to avoid decisions.

"At a minimum, this would require that all plans be made during public hearings, and that any relevant computer screen be visible to lawmakers and public observers," the judgment says.

The new cards must be completed in two weeks, said the judges. The court also indicated that she reserved the right to move the primary election of 2020 if necessary.

The decision could have far-reaching effects. This requires both more accurate maps and potential for change to determine who is responsible for drawing the next set of distribution maps in North Carolina, as lawmakers will redraw the maps after the 2020 census.

"The control of the North Carolina legislature is far more like a jump ball under new cards," NBC News's Michael Li, senior attorney at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University, told NBC News. "The new legislature elected in 2020 will draw the cards in 2021."

Stanton Jones, a Common Cause lawyer, said Tuesday's decision could also affect congressional districts.

North Carolina – a purple state – is currently represented by 9 Republicans and 3 Democrats in Congress, thanks to districts carefully drawn by Republicans and which, according to their supporters, are heavily gerrymander.

"Today's decision does not directly concern the congressional district, but it interprets and applies the North Carolina constitution to prohibit partisan gerrymandering and this decision should apply equally to the constitution. to define legislative district plans, "Jones told reporters.

The North Carolina maps are among the most gerrymandered maps of the country, which was highlighted in the 2018 elections, the decision said. In the 2018 House and Senate elections, Republican candidates won a minority of the state-wide bipartisan vote, but nevertheless won the majority of seats in the House and Senate.

In the United States, lawmakers have used fantasies for centuries, but sophisticated data, computer models and extreme partisanship have made gerrymandered cards more efficient over the years, making them more powerful and their effect more profound. democracy.