North Carolina v. Covington
U.S. Supreme Court · decided June 5, 2017 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Decided
- June 5, 2017
- Term
- October Term 2016
- Vote
- 9–0
- Issue area
- Civil Rights
- Disposition
- Vacated and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
Opinion excerpt
PER CURIAM. The North Carolina General Assembly redrew state legislative districts in 2011 to account for population changes revealed by the 2010 census. In May 2015, several registered North Carolina voters (here called plaintiffs) brought this action in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina, alleging that 28 majority-black districts in the new plan were unconstitutional racial gerrymanders. The District Court ruled for the plaintiffs in August 2016, holding that race was the predominant factor in the design of each challenged district, and that in none was that use of race "supported by a strong basis in evidence and narrowly tailored to comply with [the Voting Rights Act]." 316 F.R.D. 117, 176 (M.D.N.C.2016). The court declined to require changes in time for the then-impending November 2016 election, but ordered the General Assembly to redraw the map before North Carolina holds any future elections for that body. See App. to Juris. Statement 148-149. Three weeks after the November 2016 election, the District Court ordered additional relief. In addition to setting a March 2017 deadline for the General Assembly's drawing of new districts, the court ordered that "[t]he term of any legislator elected in 2016" from a district later modified by that remedial plan "shall be shortened to one year" (rather than the regular two). Id., at 203. Those…
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