NC Supreme Court Expected to Rule on District Maps Wednesday

RALEIGH, N.C. — The North Carolina Supreme Court is expected to rule by noon on Wednesday on the validity of new electoral maps drawn last week by the North Carolina General Assembly.

But the court and the panel of judges from the Wake County Superior Court overseeing the case will have more than the three maps drawn by the lawmakers to consider. 

Late last week, as the deadline for submissions passed, plaintiffs in an ongoing lawsuit against an earlier set of maps submitted their own set of district maps for review.

Timing is now of the essence when it comes to maps as the state Supreme Court had previously said candidate filings to run in the new congressional and state legislative districts can resume as of Friday.

The filing period had been open for just under 24 hours in December when legal challenges to the maps prompted the court to shut it down. The current filing period, if it does indeed resume on Friday, will extend through noon on March 5.

North Carolina’s primary date is currently May 17.

In submitting their maps and backing briefs Friday night, the plaintiffs in the map case, which include the North Carolina League of Conservation Voters and Common Cause, argue the latest round of maps approved by the lawmakers continue to be flawed and should be scrapped.

According to the brief submitted by the league, the maps drawn by the Republican lawmakers who control the state legislature “systematically” devalue the votes of Democratic voters, depriving them of the ability to “elect representatives to seats, compared to an equal number of voters in the favored party.”

On Monday, things took another turn when the defendants in a separate case, among them state Senate Leader Phil Berger, R-N.C., and House Speaker Tim Moore, R-N.C., petitioned the court to remove legal assistants appointed by the three-judge panel because they allegedly communicated with witnesses in their case.

In a brief filed Monday with the court, the defendants ask that two assistants be removed from their roles for having a sidebar with three of the experts the plaintiffs had used during the trial last month.

The stage for Wednesday’s decision was set Feb. 4, when the N.C. Supreme Court ruled in a 4-3, party line vote, that the prior set of congressional, state House and Senate district maps should be tossed because they were overly partisan in their design.

The North Carolina Legislature on Thursday completed a new set of maps that Republican lawmakers contend will meet the fairness directives of the three-judge panel. 

The new map for the state’s 14 U.S. House seats has been described as now having four highly competitive districts, some of which could threaten reelection prospects for incumbents. 

“We believe that the map is constitutional. We believe that it is fair to all candidates, voters … [and the] political parties in the state,” said Sen. Warren Daniel, R-N.C., a co-chair of the Senate redistricting committee. 

“It will reflect the will of the people if adopted by the court,” Daniel said.

While a Republican advantage still appears to be built into the map, the lawmakers argue they do create scenarios for Democrats to win a majority of seats in all of the maps during particularly strong years for the party. 

The previous map, drawn shortly before Thanksgiving, would have ensured Republican victories in 10 of the 14 U.S. House seats on ballots in the fall and legislative majorities in almost any contest, no matter how big a year Democrats were enjoying nationally.

In addition to the four new toss-up districts, the new congressional map would create six districts that appear to strongly favor a Republican candidate and four favoring a Democrat, according to a presentation by legislative staff. 

One of the maps submitted by those involved in the ongoing litigation would give Democrats an 8-6 advantage in congressional races.

The North Carolina League of Conservation Voters’ map doesn’t go that far, but it does, according to the group, show how districts could have been drawn more compactly and, therefore, fairer.

The League of Women Voters’ brief suggests that these maps “ensure that every voter — Republican or Democrat, white or Black — has an equal chance to elect their preferred candidate.”

“On average,” the league said, “in a state that over the last decade has given 49% of statewide votes to Democrats, [its] maps give Democrats 49% of congressional seats, 46% of Senate seats, and 47% of House seats.”

In a statement, former Attorney General Eric Holder said, “although the entirety of the trial court’s decision was not perfect, it made significant progress for North Carolinians’ representation in Congress.”

“Instead of accepting the gerrymandered map drawn by the Republican legislature, the trial court adopted a congressional map that gives North Carolinians the ability to vote in truly fair congressional districts that accurately reflect the competitive nature of the state, where both parties have the ability to represent an equal number of congressional districts,” said Holder, who now heads the National Redistricting Foundation. “We will oppose any efforts to undo this progress.

“In contrast to the trial court’s reasonable approach to the congressional map, however, the court adopted a flawed state Senate map that would create an artificial Republican advantage. A competitive state like North Carolina should have congressional and state maps that allow both parties to compete for equal representation,” Holder continued.

“This redistricting cycle, North Carolina Republicans arrogantly tried not once but twice to enact heavily gerrymandered congressional and state Senate maps. They did this because they thought they could use an anti-democracy process and simply ignore a state Supreme Court order. But they have not – and will not – win. They have underestimated the strength of the law, and the determination of the people, to defeat their unjust efforts,” Holder said.

Dan can be reached at [email protected] and at https://twitter.com/DanMcCue