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.