Judges in North Carolina threw out the state’s legislative district maps Tuesday, ruling that the maps were such an extreme partisan gerrymander by Republicans that they violated the state constitution.
The legislature must immediately start drawing new maps, the court said, demanding that they be drawn based on criteria like population, contiguity, and county lines. They must be drawn without"partisan considerations and election results data," the judges wrote, and done so in plain view, a pointed departure from the closed-door processes the ruling eschews.
New maps must be completed in two weeks, the judges said. The court also said it reserved the right to move the 2020 primary election if needed. "Control of the North Carolina legislature is much more a jump ball under new maps,” Michael Li, senior counsel at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University, told NBC News."The new legislature that’s elected in 2020 will draw the maps in 2021."
North Carolina — a purple state — is currently represented by 9 Republicans and three Democrats in Congress,"Today’s decision does not directly address the congressional district, however this decision interprets and applies the North Carolina constitution to prohibit partisan gerrymandering and that ruling should apply equally in the constitution to state legislative district sand congressional districting plans," Jones told reporters.
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