Former judges chosen to review new election maps in NC redistricting case

Former UNC System president Tom Ross and two former state Supreme Court justices were brought in to advise the court.

Posted 10:57 p.m. Feb 16, 2022 — Updated 12:18 a.m. Feb 17, 2022

Travis Fain

, WRAL statehouse reporter

Judges overseeing the North Carolina legislature’s court-ordered redistricting process appointed a trio of well known North Carolina lawyers Wednesday to review revised voting maps as the court decides whether or not to accept them.

Former University of North Carolina system President Tom Ross, a former superior court judge, will join former state Supreme Court justices Bob Orr and Bob Edmunds as "special masters" in the case. They'll comb through maps due from the General Assembly, and potentially plaintiffs in North Carolina's ongoing redistricting lawsuit, then advise the judicial panel on whether these new maps pass constitutional muster. They could also draw their own maps for the court to consider.

Special masters are common in cases like this, though often just a single special master is hired, and often they're political scientists.

The panel judges in this case, Superior Court judges Graham Shirley, Dawn Layton and Nathaniel Poovey, had asked state lawmakers and the plaintiff groups suing over legislative and congressional maps to suggest potential special masters, but the panel decided instead to "appoint three highly-qualified candidates of its own selection," the judges said in their order Wednesday.

The former judges also are allowed to hire research and technical assistants, the order says.

The case has major potential repercussions. The maps ultimately approved will go a long way toward determining which political party controls the General Assembly and holds a majority of North Carolina's congressional seats, and Democrats are hoping to eat away at Republican majorities by undoing partisan gerrymanders the state Supreme Court threw out earlier this month.

North Carolina lawmakers release revised maps. Here's what they look like

The special master group will be bipartisan. Ross is a Democrat, Edmunds a Republican. Orr was a long-time Republican until last year, when he left the party after years of frustration with the GOP's Trump era turn. He’s now registered as an unaffiliated voter.

Ross and Orr are also on the board of directors for North Carolinians for Redistricting Reform, a nonprofit group, the judges noted in their order appointing the special masters. Orr is also involved in an effort to keep U.S. Rep. Madison Cawthorn, who would ultimately run for reelection in one of the congressional districts that emerges form this process, off the ballot.

The General Assembly planned to meet late Wednesday to work on new maps, which are due to the court by Friday. The progressive groups that sued Republican General Assembly leaders over maps the legislature passed late last year may also propose their own new maps, but group spokespeople said Wednesday that they'll wait to see what the legislature's new maps look like before deciding whether to submit their own.

The General Assembly's state House and Senate maps have largely come together, though they're not final and the House planned to debate amendments Wednesday evening. Lawmakers released two proposed congressional maps this week and said Wednesday afternoon that they planned to settle on a final one Wednesday evening or Thursday morning.

The three-judge panel has to decide by noon Feb. 23 whether to approve the new maps. The state Supreme Court is monitoring the redraw as well and may step in to make final decisions.

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