North Carolina Supreme Court reverses rulings that struck down partisan gerrymanders by GOP lawmakers, handing a major loss to voting rights groups
The Republican-controlled North Carolina Supreme Court – reversing previous rulings that were handed down when the state Supreme Court leaned Democratic – said Friday that North Carolina’s constitution gave state courts no role to play in policing partisan gerrymanders. The ruling is a victory for the GOP state legislature, which brought the case back to the state Supreme Court after Republicans flipped seats on the court in the midterms, giving them the majority.
“Our constitution expressly assigns the redistricting authority to the General Assembly subject to explicit limitations in the text,” the new opinion from the North Carolina court said. “Those limitations do not address partisan gerrymandering. It is not within the authority of this Court to amend the constitution to create such limitations on a responsibility that is textually assigned to another branch.
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