Redistricting in North Carolina

Only in one subsequent case, Republican Party of North Carolina v. Martin (1992),[1] did a lower court strike down a redistricting plan on partisan gerrymandering grounds.

While the Equal Protection Clause, along with Section 2 and Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, prohibit jurisdictions from gerrymandering electoral districts to dilute the votes of racial groups, the Supreme Court has held that in some instances, the Equal Protection Clause prevents jurisdictions from drawing district lines to favor racial groups.

The Supreme Court first recognized these "affirmative racial gerrymandering" claims in Shaw v. Reno (Shaw I) (1993),[3] holding that plaintiffs "may state a claim by alleging that [redistricting] legislation, though race neutral on its face, rationally cannot be understood as anything other than an effort to separate voters into different districts on the basis of race, and that the separation lacks sufficient justification".

[9] Rucho v. Common Cause and Lamone v. Benisek were decided on June 27, 2019, which, in the 5–4 decision, determined that judging partisan gerrymandering cases is outside of the remit of the federal court system due to the political questions involved.

[13] On September 3, 2019, the 3-judge panel (2 Democrat, 1 Republican) of the Wake County Superior Court unanimously struck down North Carolina's current legislative map as unconstitutional, without referring to federal law.

The Superior Court gave the North Carolina General Assembly two weeks to draw up a new map prior to the 2020 election.

The Senate President pro tempore Phil Berger announced that the Republican caucus would comply with the ruling and would not appeal to the North Carolina Supreme Court.

[14] In 2020, the North Carolina State House of Representatives was tasked with redrawing district lines due to new census data.