The court's ruling on April 18, 2001, stated that redistricting for political reasons did not violate Federal Civil Rights Law banning race-based gerrymandering.

The issue facing this Supreme Court case was Constitutional validity of the Congressional Districts in North Carolina.

The district may be majority African American, however, Southern Blacks have strong tendencies to vote Democrat.

[1] Voter registrations were used as evidence to prove to the court that the redistricting which drew the 12th district were arguably based on political reasons.

[2] In the majority opinion, Stephen G Breyer says "the party attacking the legislatively drawn boundaries must show at the least that the legislature could have achieved its legitimate political objectives in alternative ways that are comparably consistent with traditional districting principles", and in this case, the plaintiffs were not able to make this argument compelling.