RALEIGH, N.C. — North Carolina's new political district maps are unconstitutional, the N.C. Supreme Court ruled Friday.
The maps, drawn by Republican lawmakers late last year, would have given GOP candidates a sizable advantage in elections throughout the next decade. Republican leaders argued in favor of the maps in court, saying redistricting is an inherently political process and that courts shouldn't get involved by banning partisan gerrymandering.
The Supreme Court, which has a Democratic majority, disagreed. The ruling divided the court along party lines.
All three Republican justices dissented and said they would have allowed the maps to stand. But all four Democratic justices joined in the majority opinion, which struck down the maps for both the N.C. General Assembly and North Carolina's 14 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives.
The justices ruled that the maps were skewed so far to the right that they violated the state constitution — specifically that they "are unconstitutional beyond a reasonable doubt under the free elections clause, the equal protection clause, the free speech clause and the freedom of assembly clause of North Carolina's constitution."
Their ruling orders new political districts to be redrawn. That's expected to happen quickly, before this year's elections.
North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein, a Democrat who had filed a legal brief in the case arguing that the maps were unconstitutional, was the first to announce the news Friday.
"Under our constitution, political power must be 'vested in and derived from the people' (and) our government must be 'founded upon their will only,'" Stein wrote in a series of tweets on his personal account. "Our elected leaders flout that principle when they seek to perpetuate their power irrespective of the will of the voters."
Chief Justice Paul Newby, a Republican, wrote in his dissent that he didn't believe the courts have the authority to override the legislature on redistricting. He wrote that the majority's ruling "violates separation of powers by effectively placing responsibility for redistricting with the judicial branch, not the legislative branch as expressly provided in our constitution."
