On February 4, the North Carolina Supreme Court struck down the new U.S. House and legislative district boundaries. The vote was 4-3. The majority said the districts are an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander, which the State Constitution does not permit. The majority depended on the clause in the State Constitution that says elections must be “free and equal.” Because the decision is based on the State Constitution, the case cannot be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. Here is the opinion in Harper v Hall, 413PA21.
The decision affirms that the 2022 primary will be on May 17. That is also the independent petition deadline. The court says the legislature must draw new districts by February 23.
Independent candidates for U.S. House and state legislature have an excellent chance of forcing a reduction in the number of signatures. Normally independent candidates can take more than a year to finish their petitions, but in 2022 they will not have been able to petition until February 23, because they would not have known the district boundaries. Because they have only two and one-half months to petition, they should be able to get a court order reducing their petition burdens this year. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the news about the decision.
https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/04/politics/north-carolina-redistricting-struck-down/index.html
North Carolina Supreme Court strikes down redistricting maps
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1-4-1 State legislatures vs any State const limits
PR NOW or Civil WAR II ???
Will anyone challenge the gerrymandered districts in New York that the Democrats are pushing?
Some of the free election stuff in the early State consts is derived from the 1689 English Bill of Rights Act–
Complaint -King James II regime –
7. By violating the freedom of elections of members to serve in parliament.
Parl declares in part –
8. That election of members of parliament ought to be free.
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House of Commons part of the Parl at the time was a giant minority rule gerrymander.
IE Total 2022 party hack judges perverted use of un-related stuff to attack other party hack gang gerrymander.
Context: North Carolina is gaining a U.S. House seat due to an increase in population.
It’s too bad that the judges’ votes were split along party lines. I wonder what’re the reasons a judge might vote based on which party benefits? Could the way they vote have any consequences to their employment/tenure, in NC or in other states?
Meanwhile, the conflict of interest of the legislature approving its own voting districts is pretty obvious! Any chance states could implement some kind of open source algorithm for drawing the districts? Also, which state constitutions allow (or don’t explicitly prevent) multi-member districts? You wouldn’t have to draw so many boundaries, then!
@AC,
The North Carolina Constitution requires multi-member legislative districts. It has also been interpreted to outlaw them. Also Thornburg v Gingles was directed against multi-member districts in North Carolina.
The Gingles prerequisites are essentially a demonstration that the right of minority voters to vote is abridged when submerged within a multi-member district when they could form a majority in one or more compact single-member districts.
@AC,
Judges in North Carolina are elected on a partisan basis. They may have been partisan legislators. Even if they wanted to run as an independent, they would have to garner contributions from individuals who are partisan.