Supreme Court ruling wipes out Republican-drawn House districts in N.C.

[Free Vulcan]

Supreme Court ruling wipes out Republican-drawn House districts in N.C. Richard Wolf , USA TODAY Published 10:09 a.m. ET May 22, 2017 The North Carolina ruling upheld a federal district court decision that struck down the state's 1st and 12th congressional districts because state lawmakers had packed African American voters into them, thereby minimizing the influence of black voters in other districts. Kagan said the 1st district "produced boundaries amplifying divisions between blacks and whites," while in the 12th, "race, not politics, accounted for the district's reconfiguration." Justice Samuel Alito dissented on the 12th district, joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Anthony Kennedy. They agreed with state officials that the district was drawn to help Republicans, not to disenfranchise black voters. The high court has never struck down political maps drawn to help one party, though a case from Wisconsin is likely to offer a new test next year. "Partisan gerrymandering is always unsavory, but that is not the issue here," Alito wrote. "So long as the legislature chose to retain the basic shape of District 12 and to increase the number of Democrats in the district, it was inevitable that the Democrats brought in would be disproportionately black."... Read more at: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/05/22/supreme-court-strikes-down-north-carolina-maps-congress/100855582/

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Tags:
#breaking; #SCOTUS; #northcarolina

[geronl]

Interestingly not mentioning the new member.