Rucho v. Common Cause

By: Nick Brookings

With the 2020 Census completed, time has come for states to officially begin the redistricting process. This once a decade process is hugely important as cleverly planned districts can make all the difference in a state legislature by guaranteeing one party a majority for years to come. With the divisive decision of Rucho v. Common Cause in 2019, the court ruled that partisan gerrymandering claims “present political question beyond the reach of the federal courts.” With this decision a federal hurdle in the way of gerrymandering has been cleared, signaling that the gerrymandering possibilities are open as long as federal racial gerrymandering standards are met. Redistricting is always hugely impactful for state and federal legislatures, and the dominant parties of each state, or redistricting commissions, are rushing to create their plans.

By: Gabby Vance

On Monday, October 28th, 2019, a three-judge panel of the Superior Court of Wake County ruled that the proposed North Carolina congressional district maps violated the North Carolina state constitution. Despite Democrats making up about half the state vote, the maps only consisted of three Democratic districts and ten Republican districts. The panel found that the maps clearly discriminated against Democratic voters. The mapmakers used tactics such as “packing” and “cracking” to skew the maps in favor of Republicans and manipulate the upcoming 2020 election in their favor. Packing concentrates supporters for a political party into one district to give their party a less number of wins. Whereas cracking, the opposite technique spreads large groups of voters with the same political ideology out to water down their votes. These methods created landslide victories in North Carolina in the three Democratic districts; the candidates consistently win by over 70% of the vote and then much smaller victories for the Republican seats, only around mid-to-high 50% victories.

Louisiana Redistricting: Bipartisan or Power Struggle?

The Tar Heel Test Case, Partisan Gerrymandering Cases in a Post-Rucho World