State Court Rejects Challenge To Unfair North Carolina Legislative and Congressional Maps
A panel of North Carolina state court judges rejected legal challenge to the state’s legislative and congressional maps enacted last year by the GOP Legislature. The Legislature’s 2023 redraw of its maps ensued on the heels of a decision from the majority-Republican North Carolina Supreme Court that foreclosed future redistricting challenges alleging partisan gerrymandering claims.
In Friday’s decision, a three-judge panel dismissed a lawsuit brought by voters attempting to block the state’s new maps using a novel legal argument. The panel ruled that due to the state Supreme Court’s previous decision eliminating the ability to bring partisan gerrymandering claims in the state, the voters could not succeed in arguing that the new maps violated the right to “fair” elections under the state constitution.
“The Panel finds that the issues raised by Plaintiffs are nonjusticiable political questions, and as such these claims are not appropriate for redress by this Court,” the short six-page order dismissing the case reads.
North Carolina voters argued in the suit that the 6th, 13th and 14th Congressional Districts — which encompass Davidson, Franklin and Burke Counties respectively — unduly favor Republicans and contravene the right to “fair” elections under the North Carolina Constitution. The suit also mounted challenges to the 7th State Senate District, which includes New Hanover County, and the 105th State House District, which covers part of Mecklenburg County.
Three other challenges to the state’s maps remain ongoing in federal court.
Original post, Jan. 31
A group of North Carolina voters today filed a state-level lawsuit challenging the Tar Heel State’s newly enacted congressional, state House and state Senate maps, which the Republican-controlled Legislature redrew in October 2023.
The North Carolina Legislature’s redrawing of the state’s congressional and legislative maps ensued nearly five months after the North Carolina Supreme Court’s newly constituted Republican majority overturned its prior decisions prohibiting partisan gerrymandering in an April 2023 decision. In doing so, the state’s highest court foreclosed future partisan gerrymandering challenges to any North Carolina map under the state constitution’s Free Elections Clause.
Today’s lawsuit is the fourth legal challenge to be filed over the new maps, but the first case brought in state court. Unlike the three ongoing federal lawsuits that claim the maps harm minority voters in violation of the Voting Rights Act and U.S. Constitution, the new complaint asserts that the districts violate the North Carolina Constitution under a novel legal argument.
In particular, the plaintiffs contend that in drawing the state’s new maps, the North Carolina General Assembly created an unfair partisan advantage for Republican candidates, thereby violating the right to “fair” elections — a right that is not enumerated in the state constitution. However, the lawsuit explains that since the North Carolina Constitution guarantees citizens a right to “frequent” and “free” elections, it “surely…guarantees them the right to ‘fair’ elections” as well.
“To have any value, those ‘frequent’ and ‘free’ elections must also be fair.’ Thus, there is a right to ‘fair’ elections secured as an unenumerated right in the [state constitution]…reserved by the people and fundamental to the very concept of elections and the underpinnings of democracy” the complaint states.
The plaintiffs maintain that the 6th, 13th and 14th Congressional Districts — which encompass Davidson, Franklin and Burke Counties respectively — unduly favor Republicans and contravene the right to “fair” elections under the North Carolina Constitution. The suit also mounts challenges to the 7th State Senate District, which includes New Hanover County, and the 105th State House District, which covers part of Mecklenburg County.
The lawsuit asks the state court to declare that “the citizens of North Carolina have an unenumerated constitutional right to fair elections” and to prohibit the use of the challenged maps for the 2024 election and future elections.