North Carolina Supreme Court holds that it had no authority to strike down redistricting maps last year News
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North Carolina Supreme Court holds that it had no authority to strike down redistricting maps last year

The North Carolina Supreme Court Friday held that the court had no authority to strike down the state’s election redistricting map last year.

In Harper v. Hall, the majority of the state’s highest court reasoned that the role of the court does not include political disputes that implicate policy issues. Chief Justice Paul Martin Newby explained the decision by the court to strike down the redistricting map exceeded the North Carolina Constitution’s separation of powers between the executive, legislative and judicial branches.

Historically, the majority detailed:

Courts presume that an act of the General Assembly is constitutional, and any challenge alleging that an act of the General Assembly is unconstitutional must identify an express provision of the constitution and demonstrate that the General Assembly violated the provision beyond a reasonable doubt.

Ultimately, the majority found the plaintiffs did not meet the burden to find the General Assembly violated the state constitution with partisan gerrymandering. Most of the justices sided with the defendants, including North Carolina Representative Destin Hall, because they claimed the former make-up of the court in December misinterpreted the state’s constitution and expanded their judicial powers unconstitutionally to decide a solely political case.

Justice Anita Earls wrote the dissenting opinion and stated:

Today, the majority strips the people of this right; it tells North Carolinians that the state constitution and the courts cannot protect their basic human right to self-governance and self-determination. Unchecked partisan gerrymandering allows the controlling party of the General Assembly to draw legislative redistricting plans in a way that dilutes voting power of voters in the disfavored party.

This comes after the Democratic majority for the North Carolina court held the maps violated the state’s constitution because they favored one political party over the other. Last October, the US Supreme Court heard oral arguments concerning alleged racial gerrymandering in Alabama’s redistricting maps, with a decision expected by June.

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