NC court calls its role ‘the bedrock of our sacred system.’ Will US Supreme Court agree?
In a lawsuit that mirrors a nationally watched case on legislatures’ power, the N.C. Supreme Court on Friday delivered a ruling that rejects the “independent state legislature” theory Republican lawmakers have been promoting.
The case drawing national attention, Moore v. Harper, is at the U.S. Supreme Court. It’s an appeal of the N.C. Supreme Court’s decision in February to throw out the new congressional districts that GOP leaders had wanted, due to unconstitutional partisan gerrymandering. The argument from Republican leaders is that no state courts — in North Carolina or anywhere else in the country — should be allowed to overturn laws on federal elections that the legislature passes.
Critics say a win for the legislature could spell the end of American democracy, The News & Observer has reported, by allowing for unchecked gerrymandering of U.S. congressional districts. Some contend that it even has the potential to allow for the overturning of future presidential elections.
But the theory isn’t only at the U.S. Supreme Court, which heard oral arguments in the case this month and is currently mulling a ruling on whether to apply the theory to federal elections.
State lawmakers had used Friday’s case to try making similar arguments at the local level for state elections — that state courts shouldn’t be allowed to rule state legislative districts unconstitutionally gerrymandered, either.
“Otherwise, this court is barreling into the political wilderness, where the legislative authority to redistrict will be transferred from the legislature to the courts,” a GOP attorney told the court in October during oral arguments, The N&O reported at the time.
On Friday the Supreme Court rejected that theory, in a 4-3 opinion down party lines that affirmed the right of state courts to rule on gerrymandering cases.
The ruling saw all the Democrats in the majority, and all the Republicans dissenting.
‘Bedrock of our sacred system’
At face value, the case was over the state legislative maps that were just used in the 2022 elections. The court ruled that the state House maps can continue to be used in future elections, but the state Senate maps are unconstitutional and must be redrawn.
But the court’s most senior Democratic justice, Robin Hudson, wrote in the majority opinion that her ruling goes beyond just ordering new state Senate districts.
“In so doing, we expressly and emphatically reaffirm the fundamental right of citizens to vote on equal terms enshrined within our Constitution’s Declaration of Rights, and this Court’s constitutional responsibility and authority to assess legislative compliance therewith,” she wrote.
“These principles are — and must remain — the enduring bedrock of our sacred system of democratic governance, and may be neither subordinated nor subverted for the sake of passing political expediency.”
The court’s Republicans were unconvinced.
Chief Justice Paul Newby, in the dissent, wrote that courts should not have a say in redistricting. The state constitution gives that power to the legislature, he said, and when judges try to decide whether the legislature’s actions violate other parts of the state constitution, they end up improperly taking redistricting power for themselves.
The ruling in February overturning the maps, due to the massive advantage the lines would have given Republicans even in elections in which they lost the statewide vote, was wrong, Newby wrote.
He said the court “effectively amended the state constitution to establish a redistricting commission composed of judges and political science experts.”
He went on to accuse the court’s Democratic majority of playing politics to help their party in future legislative elections.
The Senate maps the ruling overturned as unconstitutional gave Republicans a supermajority in this November’s elections — 60% of the seats, enough to override vetoes by Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper — while the map for the House seats that the court allowed to stay in place did not result in a GOP supermajority.
“By its actions today, the majority confirms the dangers of judicial usurpation of the legislative redistricting role,” Newby wrote. “By intentionally stating vague standards, it ensures that four members of this Court alone understand what redistricting plan is constitutionally compliant.
Anti-gerrymandering activists, however, said they hoped this ruling’s precedent — that partisan gerrymandering is unconstitutional — stands even after Republicans take control of the court in January.
“This case has set a clear precedent for redistricting in North Carolina,” said Bob Phillips, executive director of Common Cause North Carolina, in a press release. “Voting maps must be free from gerrymandering and respect the right of North Carolinians to have a voice in choosing their representatives. Our districts belong to the people, not politicians.”
What’s next?
The legislature was already planning on redrawing the congressional maps this summer, for the 2024 elections and beyond. Republican lawmakers originally wanted a map that would’ve allowed Democrats to win only three or four of the state’s 14 seats in Congress, even if the statewide vote was split evenly for Republicans and Democrats.
Instead, the court-ordered maps used in 2022 led to an even 7-7 split for the two parties.
With Republicans about to take control of the court, and with Newby’s dissents in February and again on Friday stating he doesn’t think courts should be involved in redistricting, the legislature has been expected to draw an aggressively pro-Republican congressional map.
What would happen with the state legislative maps had been more of an open question. If the legislature follows Friday’s court order, it would now redraw the state Senate districts, and leave the state House districts as-is.
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