Associated Press: Republicans begin complying with NC redistricting order

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina legislators who are redrawing dozens of General Assembly districts that judges deemed illegal partisan gerrymanders turned Monday to considering district lines generated by a key expert for those who successfully sued over the maps.

The House and Senate redistricting committees met to figure how they would enact new boundaries for the 2020 election by a court-mandated Sept. 18 deadline. Last week, a three-judge panel declared Republican mapmakers violated the state constitution by manipulating districts created in 2017 to help elect a maximum number of GOP candidates and make it nearly impossible for Democrats to win majorities. …

The ruling came barely two months after the U.S. Supreme Court decided partisan gerrymandering was not the purview of federal courts, but suggested it could still be acted upon by state courts.

“If the justices in Washington, D.C., won’t protect people’s constitutional rights — won’t ensure that all voters have a fair opportunity to participate in our democracy — then the courts of North Carolina will fix the problem themselves,” said Stanton Jones, a chief lawyer in the lawsuit filed by Common Cause, the state Democratic Party and Democratic voters.

Jones and others spoke at a news conference before the committee meetings in which they urged GOP lawmakers to fully carry out the court’s demands. The court said remapping of 57 House districts and 21 Senate districts must be conducted “in full public view.”