Western NC resident eyes state Supreme Court appeal for 'fair elections' gerrymander suit
A Western North Carolina resident and former Republican N.C. Supreme Court justice may soon try to bring a case about political gerrymandering to his old workplace.
Last month, Yancey County resident Bob Orr saw the dismissal of his "fair elections" lawsuit against the drawing of political districts to favor one party in elections, a practice called political gerrymandering. Orr has said he wanted to appeal the case from Wake County Superior Court.
On July 9, he told the Citizen Times he may look to skip the N.C. Court of Appeals and go directly to the state Supreme Court.
"Maybe a bypass petition to the Supreme Court, which they might allow or not," said Orr, who served on the high court from 1995 to 2004 and left the Republican party after the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol assault.
The Citizen Times reached out July 10 to defendants − the N.C. Board of Elections and the two leaders of the Republican-controlled General Assembly in Raleigh, Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger and House Speaker Tim Moore.
What's it about?
While there are multiple angles being argued, at its root, the lawsuit is about whether the General Assembly should be allowed to draw political districts to favor one party.
State legislators are supposed to reconfigure the political lines after every census to ensure the population is spread evenly through districts, including their own districts and those for U.S. House. But in N.C., that once-a-decade practice became a bonanza of court fights and regular redrawings. During one phase, Asheville found itself, for the first time, split between two congressional districts, a situation that cut the voting power of Democrats.
In the latest round, the state Supreme Court in 2022 struck down GOP-drawn maps, saying they were created to give that party an advantage and that was illegal.
But elections that year replaced the court's Democratic majority with a Republican one, and in an unusual move the new court moved quickly to reverse that ruling. The Republican justices said in their 2023 decision that partisan gerrymandering was a political question and not one to be decided by the courts. (They left untouched the idea that racial gerrymandering was illegal.)
The newest case
In the new case, Bard v. N.C. Board of Elections, Orr and other attorneys are representing Democratic and unaffiliated voters including Buncombe County attorney James Rowe, an unaffiliated voter.
In Wake County, they argued that the right to fair elections is an "unenumerated" right, meaning it is not specifically mentioned in the N.C. Constitution but is inferred, such as the right to travel and to privacy. The latest maps violate that right because even if Democrats won a distinct majority of the statewide vote, Republicans would likely win 10 of the 14 congressional districts as well as N.C. House and Senate majorities, they said.
But defendants said it is impossible to define fair elections and that the Supreme Court has already said politically slanted districts are not their purview.
"There is no basis in the text of the N.C. Constitution to recognize plaintiffs’ reformulated 'fairness' standard that has already been condemned by the N.C. Supreme Court. Plaintiffs’ complaint should be summarily dismissed with prejudice for lack of subject matter jurisdiction," they said in a May 10 filing.
While the panel of three Superior Court judges agreed, Orr says the case should be reconsidered with the focus on whether voters have a right to elections unskewed by political actors.
"This is critically important − it's the only game in town if you want to challenge cooking the books on an election," he said.
More: Redistricting rundown: How new maps and gerrymandering will affect Asheville, Buncombe
All-blue Buncombe, Asheville may get Republican NC House member for first time in decade
Joel Burgess has lived in WNC for more than 20 years, covering politics, government and other news. He's written award-winning stories on topics ranging from gerrymandering to police use of force. Got a tip? Contact Burgess at jburgess@citizentimes.com, 828-713-1095 or on Twitter @AVLreporter. Please help support this type of journalism with a subscription to the Citizen Times.
This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: WNC resident may appeal fair elections suit to NC Supreme Court
