Ex-Justice Fights Gerrymandering in NC: Unconstitutional Claims
TL/DR –
A lawsuit filed in North Carolina challenges the legitimacy of legislatively-created election districts, claiming that gerrymandering, in general, is unconstitutional. The lawsuit, filed by 11 plaintiffs, alleges that the General Assembly violated the state constitutional right to fair elections when it created new districts for the 2024 elections. The plaintiffs argue that the way the districts were apportioned in 2023 for the 2024 elections was done in secrecy, without public or minority party involvement, and they ask the court to order the adoption of a fair and valid reapportionment for the 2024 election and subsequent elections.
Historic Lawsuit Challenges Legitimacy of Election Districts in North Carolina
A landmark lawsuit, the first in North Carolina’s history, has been filed to challenge the constitutionality of gerrymandering in legislatively-created election districts. The suit was lodged in Wake County Superior Court on Jan. 31 by 11 plaintiffs across the state. The plaintiffs argue that the General Assembly infringed on voters’ statewide constitutional right to free and fair elections in formulating new electoral districts for the 2024 elections.
Gerrymandering Process Under Scrutiny
The lawsuit uniquely disputes the method employed by the General Assembly to determine district lines rather than the boundaries themselves. The plaintiffs contend that the intentional aggregation of voters into districts that favour a particular political party or candidate effectively predetermines election results, violating voters’ constitutional rights to fair elections. WNCT
Does North Carolina Guarantee Fair Elections?
Representing the plaintiffs is former associate justice of the North Carolina State Supreme Court, Robert Orr. Orr argues that the fundamental question is whether the state constitution guarantees fair elections for North Carolina voters. If so, politicians violating these rights through strategic apportionment of voters to predetermine outcomes constitutes a clear violation of the state constitution.
Manipulation of Electoral Districts
Orr further contends that the General Assembly manipulated electoral districts with selected voters, securing preordained election outcomes, thereby infringing on the rights of North Carolina voters. The lawsuit maintains that the very fabric of government rests on fair elections; without them, governance principles and public will are supplanted by partisan politics and government overreach, in this case, by the General Assembly.
Unconstitutional Districts
Specific districts, namely Congressional Districts 6, 13, and 14, State Senate District 7, and State House District 105, are cited as being manipulated to grant an unfair advantage to a specific political party. The plaintiffs seek court intervention to validate and adopt constitutionally fair reapportionment of these districts for the 2024 election and beyond. [full text of lawsuit]
Public Excluded from the Process
The lawsuit alleges that the redistricting process for the 2024 elections was conducted secretly, excluding representatives of both the public and the minority party leadership. The process determining which citizens and precincts or census blocks would be aggregated to form electoral districts was kept hidden.
More Legal Actions
[Other lawsuits] have been launched challenging the legality of the new maps since their approval in October 2023.
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