SUPREME COURT: “North Carolina does not have to hold special elections ahead of its 2018 spring legislative session, a panel of three federal judges ruled in a gerrymandering case.
But the judges on Monday [7-31-17] set a September 1 deadline for state lawmakers to ‘adopt and enact remedial districting plans’ after they had ruled last year that 28 legislative districts were unconstitutional racial gerrymanders. The US Supreme Court had affirmed the lower court’s findings in June.
The plaintiffs had argued the state’s plans packed African-Americans in districts already with a high percentage of black voters, thus diluting their presence in neighboring districts.
In August 2016, the US District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina found that that 28 legislative districts ‘are racial gerrymanders in violation of the Equal Protection Clause.’
North Carolina then took the case to the Supreme Court.”
–Madison Park and Keith Allen, “North Carolina given September deadline to draw new maps in gerrymandering case,” CNN Politics, CNN.com, Aug. 1, 2017 09:25am