Quote of the Day: NC Looking Out for Interests of African-American Voters Edition

From a supplemental brief of plaintiffs in Covington, the NC racial gerrymandering case involve state legislative districts (which had been on hold pending resolution of Cooper v. Harris):

Finally on the merits, Appellants’ suggestion that the opinion of the court below will have “dire consequences” for minority representation, Supp. Br. at 4, and that they—unlike the court below—have the best interests of minority groups at heart is risible. Every African-American legislator in the legislature in 2011 voted against these districts and groups such as the NAACP and the A. Philip Randolph Institute in the Dickson litigation, and the individual African-American plaintiffs in this case, then mounted challenges to these districts. If the State were truly concerned about minority representation, it would have undertaken an actual Section 2 analysis when it engaged in redistricting—including evaluating all of the Gingles prongs—rather than using the pretext of the Voting Rights Act to racially gerrymander. Appellants’ newfound concern for minority representation rings remarkably hollow.

Read also North Carolina’s supplemental brief (Paul Clement, counsel of record) (via NC Policy Watch).

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