Under the Dome: Will courts act on gerrymandering lawsuits before elections?

Hello and welcome to your Under the Dome newsletter. Kyle Ingram here.

Wondering about the status of all those contested redistricting plans? With less than two months until the primary, all three new North Carolina electoral maps are facing federal lawsuits — but courts may not reach decisions before elections get underway.

State Senate map debated in court

Lawyers seeking to block the new state Senate map fielded questions from U.S. District Judge James Dever in a hearing on Wednesday.

The lawsuit, filed by two Black voters in Eastern North Carolina, claims that the new Republican-crafted map violates the Voting Rights Act by “cracking” groups of Black voters between two new districts along the coast and the Virginia border.

Dever, who has previously denied efforts to speed up the case, at times appeared skeptical of plaintiffs’ arguments.

He noted a discrepancy in expert testimony submitted by plaintiffs that appears to show that a Democrat would have actually won a state Senate seat in one of the two contested districts in 2022 if the challenged map had been used.

Lawyers said this fact, which appears in a table, may have been a typo, considering it contradicts written entries later in the brief.

Lawyers for the defense claimed it was too late to order relief for plaintiffs, saying they waited too long to file their lawsuit.

Senate Democratic leader Dan Blue, who attended the hearing, told reporters that Republicans waited until the last minute to pass redistricting plans, limiting the window for potential litigants to get an injunction before the election.

If the court does side with plaintiffs — and soon— the decision could have major implications for the 2024 elections.

Republicans currently hold a supermajority in both chambers of the legislature and may be able to sustain it in this year’s election.

However, if a judge enacts remedial districts in northeastern North Carolina before the election, Democrats would likely flip a seat — potentially breaking the GOP supermajority.

The plaintiffs in the Senate map case initially sought an expedited court schedule, hoping to get a decision on an injunction to block the new districts by Dec. 1 — three days before candidate filing for the 2024 elections began.

Dever denied this request in November, writing that “plaintiffs’ request completely ignores that their case is not the only case on the court’s docket and that plaintiffs do not set this court’s schedule for holding hearings or deciding motions.”

After Dever set the hearing date for Jan. 10, plaintiffs appealed to the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals asking for an emergency injunction.

“A January 10 hearing is seven weeks after Plaintiffs filed their motion, and importantly, it is too late to implement remedial districts in time for the March 5 primaries even if the court decided the motion at the hearing,” the plaintiffs’ lawyers argued in a court filing.

After learning that the two districts in question would not have a contested primary, plaintiffs dropped the request for an emergency injunction.

Dever did not say when he might decide whether to issue an injunction.

Congressional, House maps may have to wait

Two more lawsuits allege racial gerrymandering in new districts.

A suit brought by the powerful Democratic-aligned Elias Law Firm challenges four of the state’s new congressional districts, spanning Eastern North Carolina, the Triad and Mecklenburg County.

Plaintiffs are also seeking an injunction in this case, but a hearing has not yet been scheduled.

The other lawsuit challenges all three of the state’s new electoral maps, claiming that each of them illegally dilute the votes of Black residents.

Plaintiffs in this case, which include the NAACP, aren’t seeking relief until the 2026 elections.

That’s all for today. Check your inbox on Sunday for more #ncpol news.

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