The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to speed up returning to North Carolina its rulings in the case of nearly 30 legislative districts that have been declared illegal racial gerrymanders.
Denials by the court Thursday mean it won’t be until the end of June for the justices’ judgments to be issued to a three-judge court in Greensboro.
The timeline is important because attorneys for voters who sued want the lower court to act quickly on directing legislators to redraw maps and deciding whether a special election under these maps should be held this fall.
Republican legislative leaders had asked the case be returned after the routine 25 days. The GOP lawmakers prefer holding the first elections under new boundaries during the next regularly scheduled state election in 2018.
The case in question is Covington v. North Carolina. Prior to the Supreme Court’s decision this week, WCHL’s Aaron Keck spoke with Allison Riggs, senior voting rights attorney at the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, one of the organizations representing the plaintiffs challenging the district lines.
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