NAACP appealing North Carolina redistricting ruling.

[blm]

NAACP appealing North Carolina redistricting ruling

After a three-judge panel in North Carolina upheld a Republican-drawn redistricting plan earlier this month that civil rights groups call an illegal gerrymander, the NAACP has decided to appeal the case to the state supreme court.

Political district lines drawn in 2011 by Republican lawmakers stacked too many African Americans into too few legislative and congressional districts, according to plaintiffs in the combined cases Dickson v. Rucho and NC NAACP v. North Carolina. The Republican lawmakers named as defendants in those cases have said that the lines they drew were based on political partisanship and not on race. They have also argued that the Voting Rights Act compels them to create what’s called “majority-minority” districts -- where the voting population contains enough people of color that they may elect a candidate of their choice. The state Superior Court panel agreed with them in its July 8 ruling.

But that court misunderstood the Voting Rights Act's instructions on majority-minority districts, said Irving Joyner, a law professor at North Carolina Central University who's involved in the case. "[The VRA] does not compel the drawing of majority-minority districts," said Joyner in an interview. "It only says that you can't draw lines that would dilute the black vote."

By packing 85 percent of African-American voters in North Carolina into a few districts, the line drawers have "violated every acceptable principle of redistricting that the U.S. Supreme Court has ever recognized," Joyner said.

He pointed to Shaw v. Reno, the 1990 census-based racial gerrymandering case in North Carolina that made it to the U. S. Supreme Court, which ruled that if a redistricting map is "so bizarre on its face that it is 'unexplainable on grounds other than race'" it must be held to a strict standard of scrutiny.>>>>>>

http://www.southernstudies.org/2013/07/naacp-appealing-north-carolina-redistricting-rulin.html

[blm]

1. It would be to cool to support this action as much as possible.

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[KoKo]

5. It's up to the DOJ, though...with Eric Holder...one never knows...

We've been hoping since the Repugs started this in after Obama was Elected that the NAACP would get their voice. To be fair the NAACP did start some minor legislation over the Redistricting...but it went nowhere.

I'm Hopeful! But, Cautious.

[Cha]

2. Thank you, NAACP! And, so Good Luck!

thanks, blm

[marions ghost]

3. NC NAACP

is doing awesome work in North Carolina We need to be behind this all the way...

[blm]

4. We have to - there really is no other choice, it's THAT bad.

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[marions ghost]

6. Yes it is that bad...

when you are forced to fight, or lose basic voting rights. The system is far too vulnerable to corruption. Why should we have to fight so hard just to vote?

From the article:

"The Voting Rights Act can and has been used to create majority-minority districts in other states in previous years, but mostly in places where voters of color are in such low numbers that they have no chance of electing candidates of their own choice or influencing policy creation. But in North Carolina's case, districts had been drawn where multiracial voter bases harmoniously voted for candidates of their choice. Communities of interest were grouped naturally along urban and rural lines. Under the new lines, though, black voters from rural areas were "unnecessarily" packed in with black urban voters, said Joyner, leaving the remaining areas “bleached” white."

--They turned the intent of the law upside down. There was nothing wrong with the districts as they were drawn. Just outright theft.