NC Policy Watch: NC high court tosses GOP redistricting plans and orders new ones

The North Carolina Supreme Court overturned the GOP-drawn redistricting plans, with an order saying that they are “unconstitutional under beyond a reasonable doubt.”

Friday’s order gives the legislature two weeks to submit new plans to the trial court. If legislators choose not to submit new maps, the trial court will select the plans.

Democrats hold a 4-3 majority on the Supreme Court.

The court’s three Republican justices dissented. Chief Justice Paul Newby wrote that the decision violates the separation of powers. The issue of partisan gerrymandering is not one to be decided by courts, he wrote.

Republicans in the legislature drew new districts for congressional, state House, and state Senate seats that gave GOP candidates significant and enduring advantages in elections, math and redistricting experts testified in trial court last month.

Common Cause, the League of Conservation Voters, and the voters backed by the National Redistricting Foundation challenged the legislature’s redistricting maps as extreme partisan gerrymanders that dilute Black voting power.

“Today’s ruling is an unequivocal win for North Carolina’s Black voters who were most harmed by this extreme partisan gerrymander,” Allison Riggs, a lawyer with the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, said in a statement. Riggs represented Common Cause.

“At every level, North Carolina’s GOP leadership diluted representation of communities of color to entrench their own political power in ways that were both obvious and egregious,” her statement said.