Yesterday, the Supreme Court ruled on a case involving North Carolina's gerrymandered state legislative districts. Previously, a District Court had ruled that the districts in North Carolina had been drawn with undue racial motivation. To fix this problem, the District Court ordered that North Carolina draw new districts and hold a special election. Yesterday's Supreme Court ruling strikes down the lower court's decision. While the recent ruling does not say that North Carolina's districts should remain as they are, the ruling does say that the special election imposed by the lower court did not reflect a careful consideration of all possible remedies. The Supreme Court ordered the District Court to conduct an "equitable weighing process" to consider other possible remedies. |
- conduct a numerical analysis of how many seats are likely to be gained/lost by a redistricting. (The Brennan Center has conducted a similar analysis for national legislative districts.) Use this analysis to assess any proposed remedy.
- conduct a survey of other courts' rulings in redistricting cases and observe the outcome of each.
- invite national experts in redistricting to address the court on this matter and weigh their input.
The Brennan Center's Numerical Analysis Extreme Maps |