Litigation

Litigation | North Carolina

Dickson v. Rucho

Jan. 4, 2019

CASE SUMMARY

On November 3, 2011, a coalition of nonprofit organizations and N.C. voters filed a state lawsuit against the State of North Carolina, the N.C. State Board of elections, and various state legislators challenging the state’s 2011 congressional and legislative redistricting plans as violating the U.S. and N.C. Constitutions. Plaintiffs alleged that the plans were racial gerrymanders in violation of the federal and state Equal Protection Clauses, that they failed to comply with the state constitution’s compactness, respect for county boundaries and communities of interest redistricting criteria, and that they were drawn based on excessive partisanship in violation of the state constitution’s guarantee that the General Assembly should act for the “good of the whole.” They sought a judicial declaration the congressional and legislative plans were unconstitutional, an injunction barring the plans from use in future elections, and an order requiring the General Assembly to enact remedial plans or for the court to implement their own remedial plans if the General Assembly failed to do so.

On July 8, 2018, the Wake County Superior Court upheld the congressional and legislative plans as constitutional. Plaintiffs appealed to the N.C. Supreme Court.
On December 19, 2014, the N.C. Supreme Court affirmed the superior court’s decision that the plans were constitutional. Plaintiffs appealed this decision to the U.S. Supreme Court on January 16, 2015.
On April 20, 2015, SCOTUS vacated and remanded the N.C. Supreme Court’s decision for further consideration in light of SCOTUS’s decision in Alabama Legislative Black Caucus v. Alabama.
On December 18, 2015, the N.C. Supreme Court again affirmed the trial court’s decision, finding the superior court conducted the proper analysis under Alabama Legislative Black Caucus and the challenged districts were predominantly drawn using traditional and permissible redistricting criteria. Plaintiffs again appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court on June 30, 2016.
On May 30, 2017, SCOTUS again vacated and remanded the case back to the N.C. Supreme Court, this time for further consideration in light of SCOTUS’s decision in Cooper v. Harris. On October 9, 2017, the N.C. Supreme Court further remanded the case back to the Wake County Superior Court to determine whether further proceedings were necessary.
On February 12, 2018, the Wake County Superior Court ruled for the plaintiffs and found the challenged districts were unconstitutional but, since that the General Assembly had already enacted new congressional plans in 2016 following Cooper, and new legislative plans in 2017 following North Carolina v. Covington, dismissed the plaintiffs’ claims as moot.
Legislative-defendants initially appealed this decision to the N.C. Supreme Court but, on January 4, 2019, they filed a consent motion to dismiss their appeal, which the court subsequently granted.