High court rejects several of N.C.’s redrawn districts

RALEIGH, N.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court late Tuesday rejected some but not all of the North Carolina legislative districts redrawn for this year’s elections under federal judges’ orders.

The justices partially granted the request of Republican lawmakers who contend the House and Senate maps they voted for last summer were legal and didn’t need to be altered.

A three-judge panel had determined those GOP-approved boundaries contained racial bias left over from maps originally approved in 2011 and that they violated the state constitution. So the judges hired a special master who changed about two dozen districts in all. The judges approved the districts last month.

The Supreme Court’s order means about half of those districts redrawn by Stanford University law professor Nathaniel Persily will revert to their shapes from last summer.

The order said House district changes that were made in the counties that include Charlotte and Raleigh because of state constitutional concerns are blocked while the case is appealed, but that changes made elsewhere to alleviate racial bias must be used.

The maps containing the partial changes will be used when candidate filing for all 170 General Assembly seats begins Monday.

The entire Supreme Court considered the case, and the order reflected division among the justices. Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito would have agreed to block all of the changes to the maps approved by the lower-court panel.

Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor would have denied the GOP’s request entirely, according to the order.