SCOTUS Will Hear Case Alleging Racist Gerrymandering

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear a case concerning redistricting in North Carolina and Virginia, which challengers claim were targeted efforts to lump black voters together in as few districts as possible. In the North Carolina case, McCrory v. Harris, justices will consider whether the state’s 13 congressional districts were redrawn in 2011 with unconstitutional racial gerrymanders. In the Virginia case, Bethune-Hill v. Virginia State Board of Elections, the court will weigh whether race was an improper factor in 12 challenged state House of Delegates districts. After the 2010 U.S. census, Republicans won major victories nationwide, gaining control of legislative chambers in 25 states and governorships in 29 states. In 2011, when it came time to redraw state districts, Republican mapmakers in many states sought to combine black voters wherever possible, disproportionately favoring Republicans, since black voters tend to vote Democrat. Martin S. Lederman, a Georgetown University Law Center professor, said, “On partisan gerrymandering, there is already a majority of Justices who think that it is unconstitutional, but it’s not unjusticiable because they haven’t figured out what the test ought to be for doing that.” Notably, a recent ruling by a panel of three federal judges found that the test provided by challengers to Wisconsin’s redistricting was persuasive, and they cited that test as their reason for ruling that the state’s districts had been gerrymandered. That case may also appear before the Supreme Court.