Federal judges say nine North Carolina legislative districts redrawn by Republicans over the summer still may be unlawful.
In the case of Covington v. North Carolina, a three-judge panel wrote Thursday it was concerned nine state House and Senate districts still fail to fix constitutional violations related to racial bias or “are otherwise legally unacceptable.”
The judges want a Stanford University law professor with previous experience as a special master to evaluate those districts and possibly redraw them.
Need a primer on all the gerrymandering cases? WCHL’s Aaron Keck spoke Thursday with Dustin Chicorel-Bayard of the Southern Coalition for Social Justice and Jennifer Bremer of the League of Women Voters of North Carolina. (The SCSJ is a party to Covington v. North Carolina, the case alleging racial gerrymandering in state legislative districts; the LWV is a party in League of Women Voters v. Rucho, alleging partisan gerrymandering in U.S. Congressional districts.)
Voters who originally sued over boundaries approved by the GOP-controlled legislature in 2011 argued this month that 12 new districts remained illegal. Lawyers for legislative leaders disagreed and wanted the judges to sign off on new maps for the 2018 elections.
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