Federal judges have ruled against opponents of North Carolina congressional and state Senate districts who claimed they are racial gerrymanders.
In a 181-page opinion issued November 21, the three-judge panel dismissed claims brought by the North Carolina NAACP, Common Cause, and individual voters against districts used in the 2024 election
In those lawsuits, which were brought in 2023, plaintiffs claimed that congressional and state Senate districts in the Piedmont, Mecklenburg County, and eastern counties were drawn to dilute the power of Black voters.
Republican legislators said they did not use racial data in creating the districts.
The judges, all Republican appointees, held a six-day trial last summer. Their opinion said Republican map-drawers “did not act with discriminatory purpose,” and that opponents failed to prove any of their claims.
“After considering all the evidence, we find that Plaintiffs have failed to prove that the North Carolina General Assembly drew state Senate or federal congressional districts with the discriminatory purpose of minimizing or canceling out the voting potential of black North Carolinians. The racial data necessary to execute such a discriminatory purpose was not used in drafting the 2023 Senate or congressional plans,” the judges wrote.
“The circumstances surrounding the plans’ enactment and the resulting district configurations and composition are consistent with the General Assembly’s non-racial motivations, which included traditional districting criteria, North Carolina law, and partisan performance,” the opinion continued.
The judges did not rule on the claims against the newly drawn 1st Congressional District, which Republicans reconfigured last month in order to elect another GOP member of the U.S. House. A hearing on those claims was held Wednesday. Opponents have asked the judges to prevent the new districts from being used in the 2026 election.
This article appears courtesy of our media partner NC Newsline through Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.