Judges want independent expert to look at NC legislative maps

The federal judges overseeing North Carolina's redistricting process on Thursday appointed a Stanford University law professor to take a look at legislative district maps, saying they question the legality of nine districts.

This three-judge panel is reviewing maps that the legislature approved in late August to replace House and Senate maps the court }threw out last year because 29 districts were racially gerrymandered.

In an order filed Thursday, the judges expressed concern that two Senate districts and seven House districts, including four in Wake County, "either fail to remedy the identified constitutional violation or are otherwise legally unacceptable." So, they want Nathaniel Persily to review the maps and possibly help the judges redraw them in time for the 2018 elections.

Persily, who will be paid $500 an hour for his work, has served as a court-appointed expert to draw legislative districting plans for Georgia, Maryland and New York and also redrew Connecticut’s congressional districts.

The judges said his experience is critical, considering that filing for 2018 legislative races opens in February and that any decision made by the panel will likely be appealed.

After North Carolina's maps were struck down over racial gerrymanders in 19 House and nine Senate districts, GOP leaders redrew them without looking at racial data of voters. Democrats complained that the problems couldn't be fixed by ignoring race altogether.

The law requires that minority voters be able to elect the candidates of their choice in at least some districts, but packing too many minority voters into one district dilutes their strength in surrounding districts.

"It has been shown time and again that the state legislature refuses to draw fair districts that comply with the law. Our clients are hopeful that this process will result in fair districts for all North Carolinians," Anita Earls, executive director of the Southern Coalition for Social Justice and lead attorney for the plaintiffs in the case, said in a statement.

Lawmakers who oversaw the creation of the new maps called the order "unusual and vague," saying the judges provide no facts to support their objections to them.

"Being provided only two days to respond to such a strange order that could seize a fundamental right from the people of North Carolina and hand it to a single person on the other side of the country is an outrageous and extraordinary violation of the principles of federalism and our state’s sovereignty," Rep. David Lewis, R-Harnett, and Sen. Ralph Hise, R-Mitchell, said in a joint statement.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper called the order "a positive step to ensuring fair elections in North Carolina."

"Legislative leaders had an opportunity to fix their unconstitutional legislative maps. Instead, they dragged their feet, held sham hearings and passed new maps intended to rig elections in their favor," Cooper spokesman Ford Porter said in a statement.