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US Supreme Court rejects NC’s districts

The U.S. Supreme Court vacated the North Carolina Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the GOP-drawn congressional map, which must now be re-examined at the state level.

One of the bill’s sponsors, North Carolina Sen. Bob Rucho, R-Mecklenburg, said he thinks the state Supreme Court will uphold its decision.

“North Carolina’s redistricting maps are constitutional,” he said in a statement Monday. “Today’s procedural ruling is not unexpected, and we are confident that our state Supreme Court will once again arrive at the same result.”

Rucho and his supporters face opposition from critics who say race was used as a factor in drawing some districts and that the map has reduced competition in elections.

“The practice makes for legislative and congressional races that are completely noncompetitive,” said Bob Phillips, executive director of Common Cause North Carolina. “Issues don’t get discussed, extremes of both parties are rewarded and people come together who can’t work with each other.”

The legislative team working against North Carolina’s map isn’t backing down.

“We’re very pleased,” said Allison Riggs, a staff attorney with the Southern Coalition for Social Justice. “States cannot use the Voting Rights Act in a cynical way to undermine and destroy political power amongst protected voters.”

North Carolina’s case is similar to Alabama’s, another state with a history of gerrymandering on both sides of the aisle. The Supreme Court in March rejected Alabama’s decision to uphold their districts — and they cited the case as the reason for throwing out North Carolina’s maps.

While Rucho said Alabama and North Carolina have very different cases, Riggs said the difference is immaterial.

“Both are wrong. Both legislatures used race in a way that is distasteful to the Supreme Court and is inconsistent with that court’s previous decisions,” Riggs said.

Opponents of the map hope nonpartisan districting will emerge as a solution. A bill that would create an independent commission to oversee redistricting is currently in a North Carolina House committee.

“It’s unhealthy for democracy to have legislators draw their own districts. We need a new process that removes partisan politics completely out of the map-drawing,” Phillips said.

“You get a legislature that is very unresponsive to what the people want,” Riggs said.

The outcome now will depend on the North Carolina Supreme Court. It can either remand the case, sending it back to the trial courts, or begin conducting arguments immediately.

“We’ve conducted two election cycles under an unconstitutional plan already and need to move quickly in order to have a fair election in 2016,” Riggs said. “Depending on whether the court remands the case, we hope to have a decision from the N.C. Supreme Court by October.”

state@dailytarheel.com

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