North Carolina is all set for its 2020 congressional and legislative elections. For now. The state Senate adopted the House’s version of the new congressional map Friday, Nov. 15, without approving any additional amendments. In addition, the N.C. Supreme Court has…
I have written about gerrymandering in these pages before, but the recent Superior Court ruling that the state’s legislative districts constitute an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander makes me want to do it again. This is a prime example of judicial overreach and regrettable encroachment of quantitative social…
Judges shouldn’t be afraid to strike down unconstitutional laws, but when they try to act as policymakers they subvert constitutional government rather than defend it.
Lawyers spent more time trashing experts than delving into the key constitutional question.
It may be weeks — perhaps months — before a three-judge panel issues a ruling on whether lawmakers drew N.C. voting districts legally, or whether the legislative districts are partisan gerrymanders. The three-judge panel handling Common Cause v. Lewis at the trial…
Whatever the three-judge Superior Court panel decides about Common Cause v. Lewis, a challenge to the constitutionality of North Carolina’s legislative districts, is relevant only if the plaintiffs win. That’s because we would get new legislative maps for 2020 elections — drawn to…
North Carolina’s redistricting trial Common Cause v. Lewis concluded Friday with heightened tensions, a day after the court threw out part of the testimony of one of the General Assembly’s key witnesses. Discrediting the other side’s witnesses became a main theme for…
Before mounting a defense in the Common Cause v. Lewis partisan gerrymandering trial, one lawmaker has issued a news release hinting at arguments he and fellow defendants are likely to make. “Dem ‘Expert’ Reports Are Sociological Gobbledygook,” reads the headline of the release from Sen. Ralph Hise, R-Mitchell. Hise…
After slogging through a mass of statistical data and redistricting jargon, day three of Common Cause v. Lewis brought the court back to the fundamental questions: the constitutionality of Republicans’ gerrymandered maps and the legal implications of the controversial Hofeller files. Democratic…
Redistricting reformers hurt their cause by focusing almost exclusively on partisan outcomes.
