A federal court has ruled that North Carolina unconstitutionally gerrymandered congressional districts in 2016 to ensure Republican “domination of the state’s congressional delegation.”
The three-judge panel ordered the state’s General Assembly to come up with a substitute by Jan. 24. That is not a lot of time, but Republicans are expected to appeal.
As is known to happen, Republicans seem to have shot themselves in the legal foot:
Tuesday’s decision was made easier for the panel by a kind of smoking gun: Republican leaders in the North Carolina General Assembly openly conceded that the 2016 map was drawn to benefit Republicans.
They hired a consultant from the Republican National Committee to draw the map and excluded Democrats from the process, the court panel said. That consultant, the court said, testified that he was told “to minimize the number of districts in which Democrats would have an opportunity to elect a Democratic candidate.”
Rep. David Lewis, the Republican who directed the redistricting, openly admitted a partisan gerrymander because “electing Republicans is better than electing Democrats.”
In its ruling, the panel wrote, that “is not a choice the Constitution allows legislative mapdrawers to make.”
Well, all righty, then! We agree!
