North Carolina wins Supreme Court decision over Utah

North Carolina Republican Party | June 20, 2002 | Bill Cobey

[southernnorthcarolina]

E-mail sent today...

We are pleased to report to you that we have just been informed by the State Board of Elections that North Carolina has won the U.S. Supreme Court case against the state of Utah regarding the 13th congressional seat. Therefore North Carolina officially has 13 congressional districts.

We look forward to the November elections for this and many other reasons.

Sincerely,
Bill Cobey
Chairman, North Carolina Republican Party

[southernnorthcarolina]

A mixed blessing, as far as I'm concerned...

[Phantom Lord]

Mixed? What is the downside to the decision? Other than the likelyhood that a RAT will win the new seat.

[Windom Earle]

Utah would have been more reliably Republican/conservative.

But if the Supremes had tossed the Census and awarded the result to Utah it probably would have had unreal ramifications....everything under the sun would have been subject to being changed.

[The people have spoken]

Supreme Court rejects Utah's bid for 4th congressional seat (from Deseret News)

Associated Press

      WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court affirmed a 40-year-old population estimating technique on Monday, turning back a challenge to census numbers that Utah claims robbed it of a House seat.

      The court ended a tug-of-war between Utah and North Carolina, finding that the government did nothing wrong in filling in gaps in the last census.

      The ruling is good for Democrats, who stand to benefit from the seat going to North Carolina instead of Utah.

      The Supreme Court ruled that the technique used by the Census Bureau to gather population data was not unconstitutional. The method, known as "imputation," allows headcounters who can't reach anyone at a home to use data from a neighbor's household.

      The court ruled 5-4 that the technique was not sampling, which justices said in 1999 could not be used to apportion the 435 House seats. The Supreme Court did not rule then that sampling was unconstitutional for other purposes, such as distribution of federal dollars.

      Again in this case, the court stopped short of saying that census counters are limited to a traditional nose count under the Constitution's requirement of an "actual enumeration" every 10 years.

      Census takers first mail a questionnaire to every known household, then make personal visits. Imputation is a last resort, after as many as six visits fail to find anyone, the Census Bureau says.

      The technique applies to only a tiny fraction of the nation's 105 million households. It added less than a half percent to the population of 286 million people.

      The case had put justices in an awkward position, reopening the 2000 census two years after the fact and drawing questions of whether the court had the power to intervene and force Congress and the president to change the congressional map.

      Justice Stephen Breyer, writing for the majority, said that when "all efforts have been made to reach every household," a technique like imputation is allowed. He noted that it involved a tiny percent of the population.

      He was joined by Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and Justices John Paul Stevens, David H. Souter, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

      The Census Bureau has used imputation to divvy congressional seats since 1960. The bureau, backed by the Bush administration, maintains that the estimating method is a proven, commonsense tool that makes the census more accurate.

      Census numbers are used to parcel out House seats, government money and more.

      Utah came within 900 people of getting an additional House seat, which went to the fast-growing North Carolina. Utah was given three seats, and North Carolina 13 after the latest count.

      Utah contended that part of the final 2000 data should be thrown out.

      The court's decision halted Utah's second effort to get a fourth member of Congress. Last year, Utah lost a Supreme Court case that claimed the state should get credit for large numbers of Mormon missionaries not included in the census because they were working overseas.

      The case is Utah v. Evans, 01-714.

[Constitution Day]

Does anyone know where the dist. will be?

[Constitution Day]

NC ping.

[callisto]

Well this is what it was, but considering the maps fiasco it's onlyt a guess.

"North Carolina's new 13th District was created by the General Assembly following the 2000 census. It stretches from Raleigh to Greensboro and includes all or part of Wake, Caswell, Person, Granville, Alamance, Rockingham and Guilford Counties."

[southernnorthcarolina]

I think the map above, ratified by the NC General assembly last year, is now a "done deal." The new 13th is indeed designed to be a Democratic district. The real concern is the 8th, where the Dems are trying to screw incumbent Republican Robin Hayes. His district is now only 31% Republican by registration; 35% GOP has been considered a toss-up. Perhaps his incumbency, and some campaigning by national figures (Dubya's already done it once) will bail him out. The western part of Union County, now heavily GOP (and the home, not incidentally, of this poster) has been removed from the 8th and added to Sue Myrick's safe GOP 9th; in exchange, Hayes got a finger (in both senses of the word) of Mecklenburg County, including quite a few black precincts in Charlotte. Tough district for Hayes. He does still have most of his GOP-leaning home county of Cabarrus, and he's better get the vote cranked out there.

Had Utah won the battle, there would of course be no Dem-leaning 13th, but on the other hand, the Dems in the General Assembly could have made Hayes's district even tougher. It would have had to ha been about 8% bigger in population, of course, and they might have thrust deeper into Charlotte, or added rural black voters or "Native American" voters (the Lumbee tribe in Robeson County) at the eastern edge of his district.

[Constitution Day]

Thanks southernnc, especially for the info on Robin Hayes.

I know that some out-of-state conservatives are watching that race in particular.

[Free the USA]

fyi

[T. P. Pole]

Justice Stephen Breyer, writing for the majority, . . .He was joined by Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and Justices John Paul Stevens, David H. Souter, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Now that is an interesting mix.

[KQQL]

@

[KQQL]

@@#

[Fish out of Water]

Thanks for the ping. I would have preferred a different outcome but from a legal standpoint it was the correct decision.