Plaintiffs seek review of decision on state House districts

RALEIGH, N.C. – The plaintiffs in the lawsuit challenging how some North Carolina legislative districts have been redrawn want the state Supreme Court to review this week’s decision upholding the new maps.

Common Cause NC said in a news release on Friday that eight of the districts remain partisan gerrymanders. At issue are districts in two county groupings, Columbus-Pender-Robeson and Forsyth-Yadkin.

Common Cause says the House “acted with clear partisan intent, overemphasized incumbency protection, and recreated specific features of the prior unconstitutional districts.”

A three-judge panel said it would not meet demands for a third-party expert to take over redrawing nearly 20 state House districts.

Democrats and Common Cause successfully challenged Republicans in their lawsuit, prompting the remapping. But the judges disagreed with complaints that the redrawing process wasn’t transparent, as judges ordered.