Another NC redistricting case may head to US Supreme Court

As many questions remain about the status of the state’s legislative and congressional district maps, the N.C. Supreme Court answered one on Thursday.

The state justices declined to take up a request that they rehear a case filed in state court by Margaret Dickson, a former state representative. Dickson and her fellow challengers are likely to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

In the case, one of several filed in state and federal courts challenging maps drawn in 2011 by the Republican-led legislature, Dickson and others make arguments similar to those that held sway last week with a three-judge federal panel.

Dickson and her co-challengers argue that race played too dominant a role in drawing the maps and that black voters were packed into districts where their candidates of choice typically had been successful. Packing the districts weakened the overall power of black voters, the challengers contend.

Though the maps have been upheld twice by the N.C. Supreme Court, a three-judge federal court panel late last week invalidated the 1st and 12th congressional districts, declaring them to be racial gerrymanders.

That panel ordered new maps drawn for those districts by Feb. 19. The panel ordered that no elections be held in those districts until new maps are approved.

A request for an emergency stay of that ruling was filed by the state this week at the U.S. Supreme Court. Chief Justice John Roberts on Wednesday sought response from attorneys representing the voters in Mecklenburg and Durham counties who challenged the lines as racial gerrymanders. That response is due Tuesday by 3 p.m. – just three days before the new maps are due.

The state leaders who shepherded the 2011 maps through the legislative process – state Rep. David Lewis, a Republican from Harnett County, and state Sen. Bob Rucho, a Republican from Mecklenburg – issued a joint response Thursday praising the state’s high court.

“We appreciate the North Carolina Supreme Court’s decision, which means this case is closed at the state level,” Lewis and Rucho said. “Today’s ruling makes our track record even more clear – five out of six times that North Carolina’s redistricting plans have been reviewed, they have been validated as fair, legal and constitutional. We hope the U.S. Supreme Court will recognize this, allow our state time to appeal the one and only conflicting opinion, and allow our current election to move forward.”

This story was originally published February 11, 2016 at 5:56 PM with the headline "Another NC redistricting case may head to US Supreme Court."