The Supreme Court on Tuesday halted a lower North Carolina district court’s order to hold special legislative elections in 2017.
Republican state officials, led by ex-Gov. Pat McCrory, asked the Supreme Court late last month to halt a Nov. 29 order that a special election be held for state legislative seats in 2017.
The November court order found that North Carolina legislative maps were unconstitutional and racially gerrymandered. It then called for the General Assembly to draw new maps and hold a special election to fix the problem.
#SCOTUS grants NC’s request to stay lower court order requiring special elections
— SCOTUSblog (@SCOTUSblog) January 10, 2017
“[T]he district court has now ordered the most extreme and intrusive remedy possible: partial invalidation of an election and imposition of a special election that overrides multiple provisions of the North Carolina Constitution (not to mention the reasonable expectations of North Carolina voters),” Republican Supreme Court lawyer Paul Clement wrote in the December filing.
Before the Supreme Court’s decision Tuesday, 28 special elections were scheduled for the North Carolina General Assembly.
North Carolina’s state government is currently divided, with Republicans holding the state legislature and newly elected Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper as governor.
There was no recorded dissent on the Tuesday order.
