• The newly GOP controlled North Carolina Supreme Court threw out previous gerrymandering ruling

  • The new ruling was a 5-2 along party lines

  • The previous court ruled along party lines in Feb 2022 (4-3) that both the state legislative maps and the congressional district maps violated the State constitution's guarantee of free speech, free elections, free assembly and equal protection

  • It came back to the court in December 2022 and the Democratically controlled court upheld it's previous opinion

  • The reversal today seems to call into question whether the SCOTUS will decide one of the term's most important cases - Moore v Harper

• The Republican controlled legislature can redraw the congressional boundaries for the 2024 elections

  • Under current congressional map (drawn last year by a court appointed special master) Democrats won 7 of the 14 seats

    • The original map drawn by the Republican legislature would have probably given Republicans 10 of the 14 seats in the house

  • They will also have more freedom in drawing boundaries for the General Assembly seats for the next decade

• The court became a Republican majority this year after the two GOP justices got elected

  • Was 4-3 Democrat majority

  • Now 5-2 Republican majority

  • North Carolina is one of 7 states where judges run with party affiliation

• They took the unusual step of revisiting opinions under the previous court

  • The court held rehearings in March

• They also reversed a decision to block a voter ID law from December by the Democratic judges

  • There is a federal law suit still pending

• Also overturned a ruling that had struck down a state law that denied voting rights to people who had completed prison sentences on felony charges but were still on probation, not yet released from parole to had other court restrictions

• None of the facts in any case had changed

PC: AP