CASE SUMMARY

This case involved the remedial phase for Cooper v. Harris (2017), wherein the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed a district court's invalidation of several of North Carolina's congressional districts as unconstitutional racial gerrymanders. While the defendants' appeal of the district court's decision on the merits to the U.S. Supreme Court was still pending, the North Carolina General Assembly enacted a new congressional redistricting plan on February 19, 2016 to serve as a remedial plan. The plaintiffs objected to the new plan on the grounds it was an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander under the 1st and 14th Amendments, citing testimony from the plan's drawers that it was created to secure the maximum possible partisan advantage. On June 2, 2016, the district court rejected the plaintiffs objections to the remedial plan, citing both the lack of discernible standards to evaluate partisan gerrymandering claims and the insufficiency of the record before it to strike down the plan as violating either the 1st or 14th Amendment.

The plaintiffs appealed the district court's ruling as to the remedial map objections to the U.S. Supreme Court on July 5, 2016. On May 26, 2017, the Supreme Court directed the parties to file additional briefs addressing the following questions: (1) Do the appellants have standing to challenge the remedial map as a partisan gerrymander? (2) Is the District Court's order denying the appellants' objections to the remedial map appealable under 28 U.S.C. Section 1253?

On June 28, 2018, the Supreme Court affirmed the district court's June 2, 2016 order.

CASE LIBRARY

U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina - 1:13-cv-00949

U.S. Supreme Court - No. 16-166

Harris v. Cooper (2018)
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