Today, a three judge panel in the US District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina ordered [official website; order] the appointment of a special master to evaluate nine redrawn districts. The North Carolina General Assembly redrew the districts over the summer after a unanimous panel concluded that twenty-eight districts were racially gerrymandered in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment [LII materials]; a ruling affirmed [SCOTUSBlog Materials] by the Supreme Court.

The court summarized the need for a special master as follows:

The [c]ourt is concerned that [the districts] either fail to remedy the identified constitutional violation or are otherwise legally unacceptable. In anticipation of the likely possibility of such a finding, in view of upcoming filing period for the 2018 election cycle, and upon consideration of the technical nature of determining an appropriate remedy when district lines are at issue, the Court finds exceptional circumstances [justifying a special master].

Both sides were given the opportunity to suggest potential special masters, and the court considered the short time frame left to get the districts correct before the 2018 election cycle. The court settled on a Stanford Professor, Nathaniel Persily, who has extensive practical and theoretical experience in the field. Professor Persily will advise the court on whether the districts are susceptible to disqualification under the law and, if so, to assist the court in remedying the districts.