Posted on 02/06/2016 7:21:16 AM PST by RightGeek
RALEIGH, N.C. — Three federal judges on Friday threw out the congressional voting maps the Republican-led General Assembly drew five years ago, ruling that two districts were gerrymandered along racial lines.
The ruling throws the March 15 primary into chaos, as the judges ordered state lawmakers to redraw the maps within two weeks and not to hold any elections for U.S. House until the maps are in place. A special session of the legislature would have to be called to approve new maps, and they might have to pass federal muster again.
Mail-in absentee voting started last week, and more than 8,000 ballots have already been requested, according to the State Board of Elections. It was unclear late Friday how many ballots have already been filled out and sent back in.
The three-judge panel ruled that the 1st Congressional District, which spreads like an octopus across northeast North Carolina and has a tentacle that dips into Durham County, and the 12th Congressional District, which snakes along Interstate 85 between Greensboro and Charlotte, were drawn specifically so that the majority of voters in each were black.
G.K. Butterfield, the Democratic incumbent in the 1st District, is running unopposed until November, but Democratic 12th District Congresswoman Alma Adams faces two primary challengers.
"There is strong evidence that race was the only nonnegotiable criterion and that traditional redistricting principles were subordinated to race," 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Roger Gregory wrote for the court. "In fact, the overwhelming evidence in this case shows that a (black voting-age population) percentage floor, or a racial quota, was established in both CD 1 and CD 12. And, that floor could not be compromised."
(Excerpt) Read more at wral.com ...
quote “The three-judge panel ruled that the 1st Congressional District, which spreads like an octopus across northeast North Carolina and has a tentacle that dips into Durham County, and the 12th Congressional District, which snakes along Interstate 85 between Greensboro and Charlotte, were drawn specifically so that the majority of voters in each were black.”
um... I thought the whole purpose of the voting rights act was to ensure blacks had a few districts of their own?
lol
These morons cant make up their mind!
Wait... I thought this was more or less mandated by the liberals. If districts had been drawn that were not snaking through the state, liberals would have sued because minority populations would remain minorities on a strict population basis. I thought we had to provide districts where black people could elect black people by acclamation.
One of the judges is black, and a Clinton appointee. One is white, looks odd, and is an Obama appointee. And the third is a “legacy” judge, appointed by W. Bush, filling the seat after his father died, in mild dissent.
At the end of the article, it should be noted that a Democrat suggested a Democrat dirty trick, a “non-partisan independent redistricting process”. They suckered Arizona into that, then got Democrats to pretend they were independents, to pack the board, that was supposed to be non-partisan with Republicans, Democrats and Independents, so in a heavily Republican state, the Democrats created the districts.
Have the Courts ever thrown out a democrat drawn congressional map?
That is correct. But back in the sixty's when they first mandated this practice, most non-blacks in the South were democrat voters. But since then, non-blacks have abandoned the democrat party in droves. And so now the libs can see that their original policy now hurts the democrats. And in true liberal form, they will never admit they were wrong, but instead blame Conservatives.
Is it possible to draw district lines according to population centers without even looking at the racial makeup? I guess I am too naïve to think that is possible.
Too bad this wasn’t about California....not that is real gerrymandering
So redistrict in a totally unbiased manner and the Blacks will be shrieking that their numbers are shrinking, as they most probably will. The Democrats may lose some of their most ridiculous representatives, and that would be an improvement.
Sure it’s conceptually possible but the Voting Rights Act insists that there be “black” districts so it is impossible legally.
So if the Voting Rights Act mandates this (Only for certain States), why is this Judge protesting/ I am confused. Of course, I thought the Voting Rights Act was being challenged in the Courts. What have I missed?
Most of the North Carolina delegation is Republican, these two districts which are heavily black were created to be safe black democrat seats. The democrats now want to distribute some of that safe democrat into districts that may fall to the democrats for some Republican votes inn these two districts but not enough to hurt, The dems are trying to legislate another dem seat.
Not acceptable after all these years?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Carolina%27s_1st_congressional_district
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Carolina%27s_12th_congressional_district
Concerning Virginia:
Supreme Court rules new Congressional Districts to stay
On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court turned down the bid to block the new Virginia Congressional Map. The districts most concerned and being affected by these redrawn lines are the 3rd and 4th Districts.
The current 3rd District, under Congressman Bobby Scott (D-VA) includes the cities of Hampton, Newport News, Norfolk, Petersburg and Portsmouth as well as the cities of Charles City and Surry and parts of Henrico and Prince George.
The current 4th District under Congressman J. Randy Forbes (R-VA) includes the cities of Franklin, Suffolk, Chesapeake and Emporia as well as the counties of Isle of Wight, Southampton and Sussex.
In the new proposed redrawn map, both Scott and Forbes’ districts would see significant changes in the localities of whom they represent, as the City of Franklin and Isle of Wight County are among several who would find themselves in a new district. Both Franklin and Isle of Wight would move from the 4th to the 3rd District, separating them from Southampton County, which would remain in the 4th.
http://www.tidewaternews.com/2016/02/03/supreme-court-rules-new-congressional-districts-to-stay/
I thought that was the entire point of this process.
"However, lawyers for the Republicans are appealing the ruling, and the Supreme Court has set arguments for the appeal on Monday, March 21."
This means that when the Supreme Court provides their opinion in June, the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 7th Congressional District lines could change again right before the November general election. This federal court redistricting is out of order and should be halted until the next redistricting after 2020 census.
This is only being done because the Republicans were too good with the redistricting strategy and complying with the Voter Rights Act. Now the Dems can only sue...
Gerrymandering is rampant in Louisiana so that majority-black districts can exist outside New Orleans. Upon arriving in congress those elected from these districts immediately join the Congressional Black Caucus. What kind of representation do their non-black constituents get?
Very serious. This happened in Florida too.
Voters have elected REPUBLICAN STATE LEGISLATURES. State legislatures are TASKED with drawing congressional maps after a census.
Now, the Federal Black Robed THUGS are taking over the process, again spitting on the Constitution and the tenth amendment.
Anyone who thinks this is a tempest in a teapot is wrong.
A Democrat legislature would draw districts to help DEMOCRATS. Count on it. And the federal thugs wouldn’t say a word.
Aw, crap. Will we ever get to hold a primary?
NC’s GOP legislature is redrawing the congressional maps to meet the stupid, contradictory requirements of the court that struck down the current map. The new map does not have any black-majority CDs, but has a 37%-black NC-12 entirely within Mecklenburg County (Charlotte) and a 45%-black NC-01 in Durham and the black-majority counties in East Carolina, and in each of those CDs blacks are a large majority of registered RATs (and the CDs are so heavily Dem that the party’s primary will decide the election). The black percentage also went down in the heavily RAT NC-04 (Raleigh and Chapel Hill) because it no longer snakes south towards Fayetteville or west to take in black parts of Alamance County). Those are the only three Dem CDs in the state, and chances are that NC’s U.S. House delegation will continue to be 10R/3D; none of the 10 GOP CDs have Bush under 58% in 2004 or gave McCain under 51% in 2008 (and all but one R CD gave McCain 54%+) when he lost the state; I believe that none of the 10 R CDs gave Romney under 54% in 2012. The big loser on the GOP side is Congressman George Holding, whose CD was eliminated and the new NC-13 drawn in Greensboro and counties to the SW (but whose black percentage is below 25%, so it has a strong GOP lean).
Behold the new map, as well as the demographic and electoral stats for each CD:http://www.ncleg.net/representation/redistricting.aspx
Now watch the NAACP sue because the legislature violated the Voting Rights Act by reducing the number of black-majority CDs from two to zero.
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