N. Carolina vote plan struck down due to race

WASHINGTON— The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday struck down two North Carolina congressional districts, ruling that lawmakers violated the Constitution by relying too heavily on race in drawing them, in a decision that could affect many voting maps, generally in the South. The decision was handed down by an unusual coalition of justices, and was the latest in a series of setbacks for Republican-led legislatures.

In recent cases concerning legislative maps in Alabama and Virginia, the Supreme Court has insisted that packing black voters into a few districts — which dilutes their voting power — violates the Constitution.

Republicans in the North Carolina Legislature denied race was the predominant factor in redrawing the boundaries of the two districts under review.

The lawmakers said they had tried to comply with the Voting Rights Act, which in some settings requires that black voters be concentrated in numbers sufficient to provide them an opportunity to elect their preferred candidates.

But critics of the voting map said the legislature was actually trying to diminish the number of districts in the state that could be won by Democrats.

Writing for the majority, Justice Elena Kagan said states do not have unlimited leeway in drawing districts in a claimed attempt to comply with the voting law.

With the decision, the court also was attempting to solve a constitutional puzzle: how to disentangle the roles of race and partisanship when black voters overwhelmingly favour Democrats.

The difference matters because the Supreme Court has said that only racial gerrymandering is constitutionally suspect.