Three Judge Court Severely Criticizes NC for Racial Gerrymander, and Explains Earlier Decision Not to Order Special Election

Back in July, after the Supreme Court stopped a special election for legislative districts in North Carolina after a finding of a racial gerrymander, and ordered a three-judge court to reconsider the issue, the three-judge court on remand decided to reject plaintiffs’ renewed request for a special election in 2017.

Now the three-judge court has issued a unanimous 48-page opinion explaining its earlier decision.  A snippet from the introduction of the opinion, which is very critical of North Carolina’s conduct in the case:

We conclude that the widespread, serious, and longstanding nature of the constitutional violation—among the largest racial gerrymanders ever encountered by a federal court—counsels in favor of granting Plaintiffs’ request. Likewise, any intrusion on state sovereignty associated with ordering the requested elections is more than justified by the severity and scope of that violation and its adverse impact on North Carolina voters’ right to choose— and hold accountable—their representatives, especially since the legislature took no action toward remedying the constitutional violation for many weeks after affirmance of this Court’s order, and the Legislative Defendants have otherwise acted in ways that indicate they are more interested in delay than they are in correcting this serious constitutional violation. Notwithstanding these weighty considerations favoring a special election, we nonetheless conclude such an election wouldnot be in the interest of Plaintiffs and the people of North Carolina. The compressed and overlapping schedule such an election would entail is likely to confuse voters, raise barriers to participation, and depress turnout, and therefore would not offer the vigorously contested election needed to return to the people of North Carolina their sovereignty. Accordingly, we deny Plaintiffs’ request.

We recognize that legislatures elected under the unconstitutional districting plans have governed the people of North Carolina for more than four years and will continue to do so for more than two years after this Court held that the districting plans amount to unconstitutional racial gerrymanders. But at this juncture, with only a few months before the start of the next election cycle, we are left with little choice but to conclude that a special election would not be in the interest of Plaintiffs nor the people of North Carolina

 

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