North Carolina Sued Over Racist State Senate Map

Democracy Docket reports:

Black voters today filed a federal lawsuit challenging North Carolina’s new state Senate districts that were enacted last month by the Republican-controlled Legislature.

The North Carolina Legislature’s redrawing of the state Senate districts — along with the state House and congressional districts — ensued after the North Carolina Supreme Court’s newly constituted Republican majority overturned its prior decisions prohibiting partisan gerrymandering in an April 2023 decision.

The lawsuit alleges that the new state Senate districts violate Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA) by unlawfully depriving Black voters of the opportunity to elect candidates of their choice in the Black Belt counties of northeastern North Carolina, including Bertie, Hertford, Edgecombe, Northampton and Halifax Counties.

Read the full article. Yesterday the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the right to file such lawsuits in the states under its purview: Arkansas, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota.

This is there first lawsuit challenging North Carolina’s new maps. I do not anticipate it is the last.https://t.co/0OWUkjoKF8

— Marc E. Elias (@marceelias) November 20, 2023