NC NAACP Will Not Rest Until Fight for Fair Redistricting Maps for 2018 is Won

A WIN on OCTOBER 26th!

Federal 3-Judge Panel Requests Recommendations for Special Master Requested by NC NAACP

WHAT IS HAPPENING?

Federal Court Appoints for Special Master in Racial Gerrymander Case, As Requested by NC NAACP. In this order, the panel expressed concern that the remedial maps proposed by the General Assembly last month “either fail to remedy the identified constitutional violation or are otherwise legally unacceptable.” In the amicus brief filed with the Court earlier this month, the NC NAACP argued that the General Assembly’s remedial maps remained tainted with race discrimination and did not pass constitutional muster.

October 26, 2017

Week of October 9, 2017

The Federal three-judge panel overseeing the remedy for the 2011 egregious racial gerrymander of elections – which has set our state backward for more than six years — heard oral argument on whether the General Assembly’s new district maps remedy their unconstitutional actions. Following argument, the court promptly requested recommendations for a Special Master to assist the court in ensuring fair maps to govern state legislative elections in 2018.

NC NAACP files an Amicus Brief (a legal document filed in appellate court cases by non-litigants with a strong interest in the subject matter – it advises the court of relevant, additional information or arguments that the court might wish to consider) to highlight the constitutional inadequacy in the
General Assembly’s treatment of race in constructing a remedial redistricting plan for North Carolina Senate and House seats.

September 15, 2017

August 22, 2017

A public hearing was held before the Redistricting Committee of the North Carolina General Assembly where NC NAACP asserted that the redistricting process and the maps it has produced are irreparably flawed.

State lawmakers released a proposed map for the North Carolina Senate, part of a court-ordered redrawing of election lines.

August 20, 2017

August 10, 2017

As part of its remedial redistricting process, the General Assembly’s Joint Select Committee on Redistricting held a hearing to consider and adopt redistricting criteria to be used in the drawing of remedial maps. The leadership of the General Assembly submitted to the Court proposed remedial maps that they claim were produced without any consideration of race whatsoever.

The Appellate Court directed Legislative Defendants to draw remedial districting plans that “remedy the constitutional deficiencies with the Subject Districts.” The subject 2011 districts segregated white and black voters by mechanically adding black voters to election districts in concentrations not authorized or compelled under the Voting Rights Act of 1965, thereby “bleaching” adjacent districts of voters of color and frustrating their ability to vote in alliance with a growing, multiracial fusion electorate that bridges racial divides and mitigates the effects of
racially polarized voting.

July 31, 2017

June 5, 2017

The Supreme Court affirmed a three-judge district court’s finding that 28 state legislative districts drawn by the North Carolina legislature were unconstitutional racial gerrymanders, but vacated the lower court’s order for special elections in response. Read more

The Supreme Court struck down two congressional district maps in North Carolina, holding that the state had engaged in an unconstitutional racial gerrymander. Read more

May 22, 2017

July 27, 2011

Following the 2010 United States Census, North Carolina neither gained nor lost congressional seats. In 2010, Republicans won control of both chambers of the state legislature. Consequently, Republicans dominated the 2010 redistricting process. On July 27, 2011, the North Carolina General Assembly approved congressional and state legislative redistricting plans. The Almanac of American Politics described the congressional map as follows:

[Republicans] painstakingly packed Democratic voters into just three of the state’s 13 seats: an African-American majority 1st District covering parts of rural northeastern counties and heavily black neighborhoods in Durham, an almost comically liberal 4th District tying via tentacles the academic haven of Chapel Hill to black neighborhoods in Raleigh and faraway Fayetteville, and an even more tightly packed African-American majority 12th District knifing along the I-85 corridor from Charlotte to Winston-Salem and Greensboro. Republicans drew the other 10 seats at least 10 percentage points more Republican than the national average.

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THIS ISSUE.

Redistricting in NC

See the New House and Senate Maps

Federal judges order new North Carolina district lines

News & Observer Coverage

May 23, 2017: The congressional map drawn by North Carolina Republicans after 2010 was too extreme even for Justice Clarence Thomas, who served as the deciding vote in the decision.

November 4, 2016 – Election Cycle Pedals Through Most Gerrymandered Political District in America | North Carolina’s 12th congressional district has been redrawn five times since 1993. ABC News’ Michael Koenigs pedals its unusual perimeter.

August 6th, 2016 – On the 51st Anniversary of the signing of the Voting Rights Act, Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, II along with plaintiffs, attorneys, the NC NAACP and Forward Together Moral Movement, gather to discuss the victory in the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals after they struck down the regressive voting laws passed by the North Carolina General Assembly and Governor Pat McCrory.

Rev. Barber in February 2016.

September 3rd, 2015 – As America’s Journey for Justice marches through North Carolina, a National Voting Rights March and Rally is held in front of the North Carolina General Assembly in Raleigh.

Oct. 2nd, 2014 – As GOP leaders in North Carolina escalate it’s fight to keep their voter suppression law to the Supreme Court level, NC NAACP President, Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, II and Attorney Irv Joyner respond to the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals Decision to suspend portions of the unconstitutional bill and discuses what to expect in the coming days.