A federal court ruled Tuesday that 28 of North Carolina’s state House and Senate districts were constructed in a way that violated the Constitution. The three-judge panel of the Middle District Court said the districts will have to be redrawn by mid-March of next year and Tar Heel State voters in those localities will have to vote in special primary and general elections by next fall.
“This gives the State a total of seven months from the time the districts were held to be unconstitutional, which is longer than it took the 2011 legislature to redistrict the entire state,” the order states.
Over the summer, the court ruled lawmakers had relied on residents’ race when developing the boundaries for the state legislature’s districts. The state has 120 House districts and 50 Senate districts, separate from the U.S. House districts, of which it has 13. Approximately one-sixth of the total 120 state House districts were found to be constructed unconstitutionally.
Republicans have a majority in the state legislature. The chairmen of the House and Senate Redistricting Committees decried the court’s ruling and promised to appeal it.
“This politically-motivated decision, which would effectively undo the will of millions of North Carolinians just days after they cast their ballots, is a gross overreach that blatantly disregards the constitutional guarantee for voters to duly elect their legislators to biennial terms. We continue to believe the maps drawn by the General Assembly, pre-cleared by the Obama Justice Department and twice upheld by our state’s elected Supreme Court are constitutional, and we will move quickly to appeal,” wrote Rep. David Lewis of Harnett, N.C., and Sen. Bob Rucho of Mecklenburg, N.C. in a joint statement.
The state must submit the new district boundaries by March 15. The elections, including for the U.S. House, will start in late August or early September with primaries, then general elections in early November. The winners will take office on Jan. 2, 2018 and be in office for a one-year term.
