Holder, Obama Group Join Challenge to New NC Congressional Map

By Cash Michaels

November 22, 2019 1:40PM
Cash Michaels
Cash Michaels

No sooner had both houses of the NC General Assembly last week voted to approve a new remedial Congressional redistricting map at the urging of a three-judge panel, did a national group led by former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and former Pres. Barack Obama, jump into the fray, “…supporting a group of individual plaintiffs …who are challenging the partisan gerrymandering of the state’s 2016 congressional map. The suit seeks to establish a new, fair map for use in the 2020 elections.”

The National Redistricting Foundation is supporting lawsuits against Republican legislatures across the South, including North Carolina, where plaintiffs charge African Americans and Democrats were cheated by extreme partisan gerrymandering, even to the point, in some cases, of violating the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

“The congressional map passed by Republicans in the North Carolina legislature simply replaces one partisan gerrymander with a new one. This new map fails to respond to the court’s order by continuing to split communities of interest, packing voters in urban areas, and manipulating the district lines to provide Republicans with an unfair partisan advantage,” said Holder.

The 2016 Congressional map drawn by Republicans created ten GOP congressional districts and three Democratic districts. They were challenged in Wake County Superior Court, yielding an order to redraw the maps.

The new maps approved last week would now change the configuration to eight Republican districts and five Democratic districts, if approved by the three-judge panel.

But the new maps were instantly challenged on Nov. 15th, and all parties involved ordered to file motions for summary judgement then, with arguments scheduled to be heard on December 2, the same day that official filing for the March 2020 primaries are to begin.