New York Times -For most of this decade, North Carolina Democrats have complained that the Republican-led legislature has aggressively altered the state’s voting rules and redrawn electoral maps to secure an overwhelming partisan advantage.
On Thursday, the United States Supreme Court said it couldn’t do anything about it.
Thursday’s 5-4 ruling means that North Carolina’s current Republican-drawn map delineating its 13 Congressional districts — a map that critics have said is among the country’s most egregious examples of hyper-partisanship — will stand. The decision could also embolden lawmakers around the country to continue to push the envelope and craft seats for their respective parties with the aid of increasingly sophisticated computer mapping tools.
The high court’s decision does not preclude state lawmakers, or Congress, from taking action to reduce partisan gerrymandering. Civil rights lawyers on Thursday vowed to bring litigation in state courts to curb the practice under state constitutions, and a state-level lawsuit in North Carolina, expected to be heard later this summer, challenges Republican-drawn state legislative districts.
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