#NC Supreme Court overrules decision that struck down voting maps

The North Carolina Supreme Court on Friday overruled its previous decision that struck down the state’s GOP-drawn voting maps, finding that claims of partisan gerrymandering are political questions that cannot be resolved by the state’s courts.

The 5-2 party-line vote dismisses the underlying lawsuit that led to a sweeping election law clash at the U.S. Supreme Court, allowing the justices to potentially sidestep the dispute.

“Our constitution expressly assigns the redistricting authority to the General Assembly subject to explicit limitations in the text. Those limitations do not address partisan gerrymandering. It is not within the authority of this Court to amend the constitution to create such limitations on a responsibility that is textually assigned to another branch,” North Carolina Supreme Court Chief Justice Paul Newby, a Republican, wrote for the majority.

The court’s previous 4-3 Democratic majority had struck down the GOP-drawn map. After Republicans regained control in an expensive midterm election campaign, the party’s new 5-2 majority granted a request from GOP lawmakers to rehear the dispute, marking only the third time the court did so in the past three decades.

“Following decisions such as this, we must remember that, though the path forward might seem long and unyielding, an injustice that is so glaring, so lawless, and such a betrayal to the democratic values upon which our constitution is based will not stand forever,” Justice Anita Earls, a Democrat, wrote in dissent.

Her dissent was joined by the court’s other Democrat, Justice Michael Morgan.

The new decision could impact a pending U.S. Supreme Court case with major nationwide implications for federal elections.

After the maps were struck down, the nation’s highest court agreed to take up an appeal from the Republican lawmakers. 

The lawmakers advanced before the justices their maximalist argument known as the independent state legislature theory, which contends that the federal Constitution prohibits state courts and constitutions from limiting legislatures’ power to regulate federal elections.

Under that theory, the lawmakers asked the justices to reverse the state Supreme Court’s previous decision and rule that they had no authority to issue it.

But with that decision now overruled, the U.S. Supreme Court could dismiss the appeal without reaching the merits. When the rehearing was granted, the justices had questioned whether they still had authority to move ahead.