Thanks to Richard Winger of Ballot Access News for this post.
On April 11, the trial began in Covington v State, m.d., 1:15cv-399. The issue is whether North Carolina’s Legislative Districts are, in some instances, unconstitutional racial gerrymanders.
The three judges are: Thomas D. Schroeder, a Bush Jr. appointee; James A. Wynn, Jr., an Obama appointee; Catherine Eagles, an Obama appointee.
Covington v State, m.d., 1:15cv-399
Awkwardly-shaped State Legislative Districts drawn by North Carolina Republicans in 2011 went back on trial yesterday, just two months after Federal judges who heard similar arguments threw out some Congressional boundaries as illegal racial gerrymanders.
Voters in nine House districts and 19 Senate districts sued last year. The General Assembly maps have helped the GOP expand and retain its control of the legislature in in the 2012 and 2014 elections. State judges have previously upheld challenged legislative boundary lines in separate lawsuits.
A three-judge panel February struck down the majority-black 1st and 12th Congressional Districts, forcing lawmakers to draw new lines and delay the Congressional Primaries until June. That court decision has raised expectations that the challenged Legislative Districts could also be struck down, forcing lawmakers to redraw them as well.
All but one of the 28 districts challenged are majority-black. Democratic mapmakers created only 10 majority-black districts during the last full General Assembly redistricting in 2003. The plaintiffs say in recent decades black voters in districts that are not black-majority have been electing their preferred candidates with the help of white voters. The expansion of majority-black districts reinforces racial stereotypes that black voters can only vote for or be represented by those with the same skin-color, plaintiffs' attorney Anita Earls said during her opening statement in a Greensboro courtroom. "I thought the plan was a step backward in time," said the plaintiffs' first witness, State Sen. Dan Blue, D-Wake, who voted against the 2011 maps, as did all the black legislators at the time. "It seemed to us offensive for race to be criteria for the way districts were drawn."
The trial resumes today and could take a week.
NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote! Michael H. Drucker
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