Federal Court Allows North Carolina Partisan Gerrymandering Case to Move Forward

DURHAM, N.C. – In a unanimous ruling, a three judge panel in North Carolina in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina denied a request by defendants to dismiss League of Women Voters of North Carolina v. Rucho. 

The case was initially filed in September 2016 claiming that partisan gerrymandering in North Carolina’s 2016 congressional redistricting plan violates the First and Fourteenth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution.

The opinion can be found at http://bit.ly/PartisanGerrymandering2

“On behalf of our clients and the voters of North Carolina, we are happy that this case will now proceed to an examination of the evidence and the merits of our claims,” said Anita Earls, executive director of the Southern Coalition for Social Justice. “Our clients want to see government returned to rule by the will of the people instead of a system plagued by partisan manipulation.”

The trial in the case is set to begin on June 26, 2017, in Greensboro, N.C.

“We are inching closer to North Carolinians having their day in court,” said Ruth Greenwood, deputy director of voting rights and redistricting at the Campaign Legal Center. “Voters should be able to choose their representatives, yet in North Carolina and other states across the nation, politicians are manipulating maps to choose their voters and stay in power. North Carolina’s map is an egregious partisan gerrymander that prevents voters from having their voices heard on policy decisions that directly impact their lives. Through this litigation, we hope to advance a legal theory we believe can stop this unconstitutional practice nationwide, and return democracy to the people.”

The lawsuit as filed in September 2016 can be found here: http://bit.ly/PartisanGerrymandering

More information about the “efficiency gap,” the standard being put forth to determine how partisan a redistricting plan is can be found here: http://www.southerncoalition.org/southern-coalition-for-social-justice-files-data-driven-partisan-gerrymandering-lawsuit/

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Written By Southern Coalition for Social Justice

Federal Court Allows North Carolina Partisan Gerrymandering Case to Move Forward was originally published @ Southern Coalition for Social Justice and has been syndicated with permission.