SCOTUS to Rule on ‘Textbook Example’ of Racist Gerrymandering
(COMMON DREAMS) Lauren McCauley, June 28, 2016 — The U.S. Supreme Court announced Monday that it will soon weigh in on whether North Carolina’s redistricting relied too heavily on race, deliberately clustering large populations of black voters into two districts in an attempt to diminish their influence and sway election results.
The Hill reports:
North Carolina citizens bringing the case forward argued that the redrawn lines were a “textbook example of racial gerrymandering” that violated the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment.
They claimed North Carolina lawmakers packed black voters from “disparate black communities” into the 1st Congressional District and 12th Congressional District.
A federal court ruled earlier this year that the 2011 redistricting did constitute racially-motivated gerrymandering and ordered the lines to be redrawn, though voters challenged the new districts as well. According to Politico‘s Josh Gerstein, “The latest revision of the map is expected to preserve a 10-to-3 Republican-Democratic split in the state’s U.S. House delegation.”