SCOTUS Denies Expedited Review of North Carolina Partisan Gerrymander Leaving Voters in Limbo

Statements of Common Cause President Karen Hobert Flynn and Common Cause North Carolina Executive Director Bob Phillips

Today, the U.S. Supreme Court denied the motion for expedited review of Common Cause v. Rucho and League of Women Voters of North Carolina v. Rucho. The Court granted a stay in the case after a unanimous decision from a three-judge federal court had ruled North Carolina’s congressional districts unconstitutional and ordered them redrawn by January 24, 2018.

“Today’s decision is justice delayed but we are confident that justice will not be denied to the hundreds of thousands of North Carolinians who were essentially disenfranchised by this gross partisan distortion of the state’s congressional maps,” said Karen Hobert Flynn, president of Common Cause. “Voters in North Carolina won a major victory in the lower courts and it must be emphasized that the Supreme Court has not made any move to overturn that ruling. We are hopeful that the Court, recognizing the potential repercussions, will still hear this case during this year so that the citizens of North Carolina will not be forced to vote in yet another election cycle under unconstitutionally gerrymandered maps.” 

“We are confident that the U.S. Supreme Court will ultimately agree with the federal district court’s clear rebuke of partisan gerrymandering and uphold our landmark victory in the fight for fair voting maps,” said Bob Phillips, executive director of Common Cause North Carolina.

To read the Common Cause motion seeking an expedited review of the case, click here.

To read the decision of the three-judge federal court, click here.

To read the original Common Cause complaint, click here.