High court: N.C. districts too reliant on race
Ruling against state likely to boost similar challenges elsewhere
WASHINGTON— The Supreme Court struck down two congressional districts in North Carolina on Monday because race played too large a role in their creation, a decision voting rights advocates said would boost challenges in other states.
The justices ruled that Republicans who controlled the state legislature and governor’s office in 2011 placed too many AfricanAmericans in the two districts. The result was to weaken African-American voting strength elsewhere in North Carolina.
In recent years, the Supreme Court has ruled for civil rights groups and black voters in challenges to political districts in Alabama, North Carolina and Virginia.
A Democratic group led by former Attorney General Eric Holder is focusing on redistricting challenges to counter political gains Republicans have made since the 2010 census and the redrawing of electoral districts that followed. Marc Elias, who argued the North Carolina case and is a senior adviser to Holder’s group, said the ruling “will serve as a warning to Republicans not just in North Carolina but throughout the country that their cynical efforts to use race will not go unchallenged.”
No compelling justification
In North Carolina, both districts have since been redrawn and the state conducted elections under the new congressional map in 2016. Even with the new districts, Republicans maintained their 10-3 edge in congressional seats.
New challenges have been filed to the redrawn districts, this time claiming politics played too much of a role in their creation. The Supreme Court has never ruled that a partisan gerrymander violates the Constitution.
Justice Elena Kagan, writing for the court, said the state did not offer compelling justifications to justify its reliance on race in either district.
The issue of race and redistricting one is a familiar one at the Supreme Court and Kagan noted that one of the districts was “making its fifth(!) appearance before this court.”
States have to take race into account when drawing maps for legislative, congressional and a host of municipal political districts. At the same time, race can’t be the predominant factor without very strong reasons, under a line of high court cases going back 20 years.
A three-judge federal court previously struck down the two districts. The justices upheld the lower court ruling on both counts.
The court unanimously affirmed the lower court ruling on District 1 in northeastern North Carolina. Kagan wrote that the court will not “approve a racial gerrymander whose necessity is supported by no evidence.”
The justices split 5-3 on the other district, District 12 in the southwestern part of the state. Justice Clarence Thomas joined the four liberal justices to form a majority. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Samuel Alito and Anthony Kennedy dissented. Justice Neil Gorsuch did not take part in the case.
The state insisted that race played no role at all in the creation of one district. Instead, the state argued that Republicans who controlled the redistricting process wanted to leave the district in Democratic hands, so that the surrounding districts would be safer for Republicans.
“The evidence offered at trial … adequately supports the conclusion that race, not politics, accounted for the district’s reconfiguration,” Kagan wrote.
Texas ramifications
The lawyer leading the challenge to the state districts, Anita Earls of the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, said Monday’s ruling has implications.
“It’s abundantly clear that what the state of North Carolina did in drawing its legislative districts cannot withstand constitutional muster,” Earls said.
Some experts say the justices weakened a key argument that North Carolina, Texas and other Southern states have made while defending gerrymandering that seemed to target minority voters: The ruling comes as a yearslong battle over Texas maps is again heating up.
In March, a three-judge federal panel in San Antonio ruled that lawmakers knowingly discriminated in drawing the state’s congressional map, and flagged particular violations in the 23rd Congressional District, represented by Will Hurd, R-Helotes; the 27th, represented by Blake Farenthold, R-Corpus Christi; and the 35th, represented by Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin.
And in April, the judges concluded in a 2-1 ruling that the 2011 Texas Legislature intentionally diluted the clout of minority voters statewide — and specifically in a number of state House districts across Texas.