Supreme Court orders review of North Carolina redistricting

WASHINGTON (AP) – The Supreme Court has thrown out a North Carolina court ruling that upheld Republican-drawn electoral districts for state and congressional lawmakers.

The justices on Monday ordered the state Supreme Court to consider anew whether the North Carolina legislature relied too heavily on race when it redrew voting districts following the 2010 census.

The high court issued a similar ruling last month involving a complaint from black Alabama Democrats that the Republican-dominated legislature illegally packed black voters into too few voting districts.

New Hanover County Democratic Party vice chair Richard Poole says since republican-led redistricting in 2010, the districts do not accurately represent demographic trends.

“I think our districts in New Hanover County are ridiculous,” Pool said. “I think they reflect extreme gerrymandering. They reflect a Republican Party that is desperate to hang on to power.”

Poole says the districts are confusing, especially for one part of downtown Wilmington.

“What the redistricting did essentially is took the majority of African American voters in our counties and put them in Walter Jones district who is a congressman they don’t know and they’ve never seen in their county.”

After the Supreme Court decision, Republican Representative David Lewis and Republican Senator Bob Rucho from the state’s redistricting committee released this statement.

“Since 2011, every court that has issued an opinion and the Obama Justice Department has reached the same conclusion – North Carolina’s redistricting maps are constitutional. Today’s procedural ruling is not unexpected and we are confident that our state Supreme Court will once again arrive at the same result and the U.S. Supreme Court will affirm its decision.”

In Alabama, the justices said a lower court used the wrong test when it upheld legislative districts and determined that race was not the primary motivating factor in drawing boundary lines.

The Supreme Court said judges in North Carolina must revisit their ruling in light of the Alabama decision.

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