Associated Press: Attorneys: North Carolina Congress remap claims still valid

RALEIGH, N.C. North Carolina’s congressional map is still unconstitutional, election advocacy groups and Democrats wrote Wednesday, even though the U.S. Supreme Court recently rejected a lower court decision that threw out the map due to excessive partisanship. …

Lawyers for the plaintiffs who originally sued urged the judges to act quickly so any appeal could be heard during the Supreme Court’s next session starting in October. That way, they wrote, resolution would be ensured for the 2020 elections.

Attorneys for the League of Women Voters of North Carolina, Common Cause, the state Democratic Party and Democratic voters wrote that legal standing to sue wasn’t a problem in the North Carolina case.

Their lawyers wrote the individual plaintiffs or group members live in each of the 13 congressional districts. The League of Women Voters’ attorneys also offered data from experts showing the value of an individual’s vote was weakened because Republicans packed them into one of three overwhelmingly Democratic districts or put them in the other 10 districts favoring Republican congressional candidates.

Regardless, they wrote, the Wisconsin matter has no effect on the three-judge panel’s previous decisions that the North Carolina map violated the voters’ First Amendment rights to freedom of association and the directive for states to hold fair congressional elections, according to the briefs.

“Our plaintiffs clearly have standing and have suffered real harm by the legislature’s extreme partisan gerrymandering,” Bob Phillips, executive director of Common Cause North Carolina, said in a release. “This case is key to protecting the constitutional right of citizens in North Carolina and across the nation to have a voice in choosing their representatives.”