Lawmakers to hold hearings in advance of redistricting session

Lawmakers will hold hearings on how they should redraw the state's congressional districts if the U.S. Supreme Court does not stay a lower court order.

Posted 11:24 p.m. Feb 12, 2016 — Updated 4:08 a.m. Feb 13, 2016

Mark Binker

RALEIGH, N.C. — Top leaders at the General Assembly are getting ready to redraw the state's congressional districts next week, even though they are hoping that the U.S. Supreme Court will save them the trouble.

House Speaker Tim Moore and Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger appointed a committee Friday to hold hearings across the state on Monday. The committee will meet on Tuesday to consider that feedback and how it will apply to a federal court order issued last week.

That order, issued by a three-judge panel, gave the General Assembly until Feb. 19 to redraw the 1st Congressional District, which sprawls through northeastern North Carolina, and the 12th Congressional District, which runs from Charlotte to Greensboro. Because those two districts are so intertwined with other regions of the state, lawmakers will likely have to adjust much of North Carolina's congressional map in order to comply with the ruling.

However, the state has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to step in. Chief Justice John Roberts ordered opponents of the maps to explain by Tuesday why he should not grant the state's request for a stay.

Unless the Supreme Court acts by the end of the week, lawmakers plan to be back in town Thursday and Friday to redraw the maps based on the court order and the advice they get on Monday.

"Because there was no direct curative language in the opinion, we're hoping input from the public will shed light on what they want us to do," Rep. David Lewis, R-Harnett, the House co-chair of the committee, said Friday.

The trio of lower court judges ruled that lawmakers unconstitutionally drew their maps based on race.

"We know that not to have been the case," Lewis said Friday, adding that the court ruled that it would not hear from the state's experts on the race-related matter.

The judges said the state cannot use its current maps for the upcoming March 15 primary. However, voting has already begun, with 13,592 voters already requesting mail-in absentee ballots as of Friday. Of those, 1,153 have been cast, according to the State Board of Elections.

"We've undertaken a process that would normally take several months to compress that, essentially, into a little over a week," Moore, R-Cleveland, said Friday. "We're confident the court decision will be stayed, but not knowing for sure, we feel like we need to comply with what's been ordered."