{"id":242,"date":"2018-01-09T21:15:12","date_gmt":"2018-01-10T02:15:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/?p=242"},"modified":"2018-03-01T11:42:14","modified_gmt":"2018-03-01T16:42:14","slug":"north-carolina-is-ordered-to-redraw-its-congressional-map","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/?p=242","title":{"rendered":"North Carolina Is Ordered to Redraw Its Congressional Map"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By\u00a0ALAN BLINDER<\/span><\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<\/span>MICHAEL WINES<\/span><\/a><\/span>

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Republican State Senators Dan Soucek, left, and Brent Jackson review historic maps during a special legislative session in 2016 to set North Carolina\u2019s 13 congressional districts.<\/span>Credit<\/span>Corey Lowenstein\/The News & Observer, via Associated Press<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A panel of federal judges struck down North Carolina\u2019s congressional map on Tuesday, condemning it as unconstitutional because Republicans had drawn the map seeking a political advantage.<\/p>\n

The ruling was the first time that a federal court had blocked a congressional map because of a partisan gerrymander, and it instantly endangered Republican seats in the coming elections.<\/p>\n

Judge James A. Wynn Jr., in a biting 191-page opinion, said that Republicans in North Carolina\u2019s Legislature had been \u201cmotivated by invidious partisan intent\u201d as they carried out their obligation in 2016 to divide the state into 13 congressional districts, 10 of which are held by Republicans. The result, Judge Wynn wrote, violated the 14th Amendment\u2019s guarantee of equal protection.<\/p>\n

The ruling and its chief demand \u2014 that the Republican-dominated Legislature create a new landscape of congressional districts by Jan. 24 \u2014 infused new turmoil into the political chaos that has in recent years enveloped North Carolina. President Trump carried North Carolina in 2016, but the state elected a Democrat as its governor on the same day and in 2008 supported President Barack Obama.<\/p>\n

The unusually blunt decision by the panel could lend momentum to two other challenges on gerrymandering that are already before the Supreme Court \u2014 and that the North Carolina case could join if Republicans make good on their vow to appeal Tuesday\u2019s ruling.<\/p>\n

In October, the\u00a0court heard an appeal<\/a>\u00a0of another three-judge panel\u2019s ruling that Republicans had unconstitutionally gerrymandered Wisconsin\u2019s State Assembly in an attempt to relegate Democrats to a permanent minority.\u00a0In the second case<\/a>, the justices will hear arguments by Maryland Republicans that the Democratic-controlled Legislature redrew House districts to flip a Republican-held seat to Democratic control.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The Supreme Court has\u00a0struggled without success<\/a>\u00a0for decades to develop a legal standard for determining when a partisan gerrymander crosses constitutional lines. The court once came close to ruling that such cases were political matters beyond its jurisdiction. But the rise of extreme partisan gerrymanders in the last decade, powered by a growing ideological divide and powerful map-drawing software, has brought the question back to the justices with new urgency. A Supreme Court ruling outlawing at least some such gerrymanders could reshape the political landscape.<\/p>\n

Fights over voting rights and election procedures have often taken center stage in Raleigh, North Carolina\u2019s capital, and Tuesday\u2019s ruling noted that \u201cpartisan advantage\u201d had been a criterion lawmakers used when mulling how to map the state.<\/p>\n

Republican officials in the General Assembly said Tuesday evening that they intended to appeal the ruling, which many elected officials and political strategists were still scrambling to digest. Dallas Woodhouse, the executive director of the North Carolina Republican Party, criticized Judge Wynn and accused him of \u201cwaging a personal, partisan war on North Carolina Republicans.\u201d<\/p>\n